Newcomers
by TweakerWolf
Summary: A twist on the popular story Adoptions. This piece is co-authored by me (TweakerWolf) and Sharon2567. It introduces a few of our own original characters into the storyline of Adoptions. Check out the adventures Carly, Sharon, and their Weres Ran, Connor, and Sabastian can get into while going to BHHS
1. Prologue part 1

Prologue

Introducing, Carly and Sharon, plus their Weres Ran, Sabastian and Connor; Carly is a junior at Beacon Hills High and Sharon is a freshman. This is going to be an offshoot of Adoptions, because we wanted to try and introduce our own characters into the story and see what happens. This is the story of how they meet and become friends.

Carly: a punk rocker, dresses in dark clothes and a lot of band tee shirts, has wavy brown hair, brown eyes, is 5'6" and is of Hispanic descent. She's super friendly; always engaging the other students around her and making them feel welcome in any situation. Her favorite subject is math, but science is a close second. She always studies hard and does all her work, leading some of the other kids calling her a nerd but it doesn't bother her. Birthday: December 3

Sharon: a stylish girl, who wears nice clothes but also comfortable clothes, because heels just aren't an everyday thing for her. Her hair is long, brown and wavy, although he curls/straightens it often; she's of German/Irish descent so she has fair skin and bluish green eyes. Sharon is super shy around new people and doesn't easily make friends, but loves the people that are close to her. Her favorite subject includes Shop class and she dislikes Biology. Not many of the other kids know much about her since she hardly ever talks, but she gets through classes just fine without them. Birthday: April 23

Cam: Sharon's long time friend and ice skating partner, and is currently a Sophomore at BHHS; full name is Campbell. He has short (3 in) light brown hair (gelled up usually), green eyes, and is about 6' tall, of European descent; his style can be classified as Preppy/Casual as he like to dress well. He is completely loyal to his best friend and can get aggressive if pushed to far but is otherwise a compassionate person. His favorite class is French (although he is fluent in Spanish as well), and his least favorite is Algebra 2. Cam isn't quite as shy as Sharon, but he doesn't go out of his way to make a lot of friends, believing in quality over quantity, although he does warm up to Carly easily. Birthday: October 14

Adam: A sophomore at BHHS, he is 5'11" with blue eyes and shaggy brown hair. He's quite the jock, loving lacrosse and working out; he plays for Coach Finstock, jersey number is 28. Adam's quite the honest sweetheart, if a bit outgoing. Because of this he greatly dislikes bullies of any kind and his algebra class (man is his teacher mean). His clothing style could be classified as laid back or casual, often wearing loose-fitting clothes. Birthday: February 9

Ran: Carly's Were pet, is of Japanese descent so she has straight black hair and olive toned skin; she's rather quiet, not speaking very often, so Carly teaches her some basic Sign Language to allow her to communicate. Ran (name means Water Lily in Japanese) loves to read and learn, and dresses in baggy clothes to maintain comfort. She is very protective of her friends and is quick to anger if anyone threatens those she is close to.

Sabastian: Twin brother of Connor, both of whom belong to Sharon. He loves sports, eager to try out lacrosse as soon as he finds out they get to go to school. He is the quieter of the pair, with curly blonde hair. His favorite class is Shop class and least favorite is English (thanks to Jackson). His favorite candy is gummy bears, especially the red ones, and he is spoiled by Ran.

Connor: Twin brother of Sabastian, he also loves sports and is the more outgoing of the two. He has straight hair unlike his brother, so it's easy to tell them apart. His favorite class is Spanish, and he dislikes English, just like his brother. He loves M&M's, which Ran always gives him, and he is often surprised by Sharon's shy nature because she is very open around them.

Carly was sitting in Econ, laughing at Coach Finstock's antics like the rest of the class; he might be weird but he was a pretty good teacher. School had started a few months ago and they were finally getting assigned a group project, she was excited. There were a few people in the class that she knew would be good partners and some she would do anything to avoid, the rest, she'd just have to find out. When he called out her name, she perked up, ready to meet her partner; then he called out Sharon's name and Carly scanned the classroom. As Sharon met her gaze, Carly gave a warm wave and smiled; Sharon offered the briefest of smiles before turning back to the teacher as he finished pairing up the students.

Once he was done, he told everyone to get to work, and there was a brief scramble as everyone tried to organize their new seating. Once they all sat down, there was a dull buzz as everyone tried to talk without being too loud.

"Hey Sharon, I don't think we've ever really spoke, I'm Carly, nice to meet you," Carly said, taking charge and initiating the conversation.

"Well, I'm Sharon, as you know," Sharon laughed quietly, not knowing what else to say.

But Carly powered on, pulling up the paper that Coach had given them, "Okay, so we need to come up with our own company, give it a name and a business card design, that's easy. Let's see what else, oh; we'll have to describe our product and our advertisement ideas. Then discuss our wages and worker tiers, got to have some kind of ladder for them to rise up. This doesn't seem too bad, where do you want to start?"

Sharon glanced down at her paper, "Um, I guess we might as well decide on our product line, then it will be easier to decide on a business card and maybe company name. How long do we have?"

"Two weeks. We should probably find time outside of school to work on this, when are you free?"

Sharon gave a big smile, so glad to be with someone that seemed eager to do their share of the work, "I'm not in any clubs or anything so I'm free after school every day. As long as I text my mom and get home before dinner, she should be okay with it. Would it be okay if we go to your house? Or maybe the library if you want, Dad works from home so I don't know how he'd feel about company coming over."

Carly nodded in understanding, "Not a problem, my house is fine, if you don't mind meeting my mom; she's fun, just a little weird some times. But she totally nurtures my creativity and lets me do whatever I want to my room, she's really awesome like that. And I'm sure she'll let us order a pizza, do you like pizza?"

"Uh, yea, pizza's fine, pepperoni? And your Mom does sound like fun," Sharon slowly added, not sure how she felt about the barrage of information.

"Cool. Since class is almost over, did you want to just meet out front after school? I can give you a lift to my house and then you can just let me know when to take you home."

Sharon agreed to that, glad that her partner was so understanding; when the bell rang, Carly said goodbye and flew out of the classroom, eager for her next class.

*After School*

Carly stood at the bottom of the steps, twirling her keys around her index finger as she waited for Sharon. She hoped she hadn't come on too strong earlier; Sharon seemed slightly taken back when she had been explaining her mom. But it was nothing a productive afternoon couldn't smooth out, especially after she actually came to the house. Carly loved making friends, and Sharon definitely seemed like a nice person, just a little shy maybe. Just then Sharon appeared, a polite grin on her face.

"Ready to go?" Carly asked.

"Going, you're going somewhere Sharon?" asked a boy that came up behind her. He immediately gave Carly a skeptical brow raise.

"Oh, who is this? Is he coming too?" Carly asked, more than friendly.

"No, no… Cam isn't coming. Uh, right, this is my friend Cam, best friend really," Sharon fumbled.

"Oh, well nice to meet you Cam, name's Carly. I'm Sharon's new partner in Econ, we're going to be building a business together- isn't that great?"

Cam opened his eyes just a bit wider, "Yea, fun stuff. Can I walk you to your car then?"

"Sure, this way!"

Sharon nodded in agreement and let Carly lead the way; she gaped in surprise when Carly led her over to the sleek black truck that everyone knew. How had Sharon never noticed who was driving this monster? The truck was _loud_, to say the least; every time it pulled into the parking lot, there was music blaring and the exhaust was rumbling. The first time she heard it start up after school, Sharon had jumped out of her skin, the loud exhaust surprising her as it gunned passed her.

"Whoa, no way; no, way! This baby is yours? Seriously?" Cam asked full of awe. He walked up to the truck and carefully placed his hand on the hood.

"Yea, this is my baby all right, worked hard to get her too, provide her with a kickass sound system, beast muffler, the works. Where is your ride? You have one right?"

"You know it, I'll bring her over."

Sharon couldn't help but roll her eyes, leave it to Cam to talk vehicles with her new partner. But at least he didn't immediately hate her so that was a really big thing in Sharon's book. She looked over at her new partner and could tell that she was eager to see this ride, she was standing on her tiptoes and was scanning for Cam. She was biting the inside of cheek, she could already tell that Carly was going to be stoked when Campbell got back. And there he was, Sharon could hear his engine revving up as he pulled out of his space. Within seconds his sleek motorcycle was pulling up in front of the truck and he dropped the kickstand and pulled off his helmet.

"No way, a motorcycle, way cool! I wanted one, but Mom wouldn't stand for it 'cause my grandfather died on one. So badass truck instead, which is still totally cool. Trade you for a day sometime?" Carly joked.

"Maybe, we'll have to see about that. Glad you like it. I'd love to sit here and discuss these more but I've got to run and you too have to go build your business, so excuse me ladies, but I'm off," Cam said. He gave Sharon a hug and then with a quick wave he was off.

"You're friend is cool, I like him," Carly declared.

Sharon laughed, caught by surprise but she supposed this was good; it would be very troublesome if they didn't like each other for the next two weeks. She turned to the truck as Carly unlocked it, cautiously climbing in, the 6in lift making her pull on the door handle to get some leverage; but she quickly buckled in only to jump again as Carly started the truck up. Instantly there was loud music roaring in her ears, which Carly quickly turned down, giving Sharon a sheepish smile.

"Sorry 'bout that, I usually drive by myself, and I love loud music. Although I'm sure you know that, this truck is kinda hard to miss as I drive to school," Carly laughed. "Do you like As I Lay Dying?"

Sharon just stared wide-eyed at the older teen, not even knowing who that was, so she gave a slow shake of her head. As she listened to the music coming out of the speakers, she wondered if there were any actual words in the song, it sounded very confusing to her. Carly gave a slight disappointed look and Sharon was suddenly afraid that she offended her in some way.

"Darn, no one here really likes my music," Carly sighed melodramatically. "It's cool though, I like Pop, Country, and Classic Rock. What do you prefer?" Carly asked, fingers on the dial, switching to the radio and flipping through the stations.

"Pop is fine," she replied, barely audible.

Carly nodded her head and found a good station, instantly tapping her fingers to the beat. The first part of the car ride was quiet, Sharon staring out the window, looking at the houses as they drove by.

"So, did you come up with anything for our project? I'm completely stuck on what we could be selling… once we figure that out I think the rest will be easy, we should have no problem pulling everything together once we crack the hardest part."

Sharon agreed, but hadn't had time to think about it during school, but hopefully they'd come up with something before it was time to go home. Sharon would feel just awful if today would be a total waste because she couldn't come up with anything good.

It wasn't long before Carly was pulling into the driveway, and Sharon gasped in surprise, she didn't live too far from here. If she wanted to she could probably walk home (if it wasn't raining of course).

"Everything okay?" Carly asked, hearing the small gasp.

"Y-yea, you just live kinda close to me, I didn't really expect that is all."

"Really? That's cool!"

They climbed out of the truck and went in through the garage, a dog instantly coming to greet them. Sharon jumped slightly, not expecting the black lab to jump at her, but Carly stepped in the way, catching its paws and scolding the dog.

"Gotham, you know you shouldn't jump on new people, it's rude."

Sharon laughed as the dog seemed to look ashamed, ears down and eyes downcast, but his tail was still wagging.

"Oh gosh, I hope you aren't allergic, I didn't even think about that," Carly stated, looking fearfully back at her new partner.

"No, it's fine, I was just surprised. He's adorable though, just really, big."

"Yea and he thinks he belongs in my lap, but he's well mannered and completely smart too! I've taught him a bunch of neat tricks."

The pair moved into the kitchen, Carly calling out for her Mom to announce that she had a guest. A voice called out to them, saying she'd be in shortly and Sharon started to get a little nervous, she really wasn't good with other people's parents. But she didn't have time to dwell on it because Carly pulled her into the family room, and dropped off all her stuff and inviting Sharon to do the same.

Carly plopped down on the floor, crossing her legs, "Go ahead and get comfy, no need to stand."

"Oh, right, of course," Sharon laughed, sitting down on the couch as Gotham crawled into his owner's lap.

Just then a woman walked into the room, colorful hat on her head, "Hello! I'm Marie Hernandez, Carly's mom, nice to meet you."

"Hi, I'm Sharon," she replied after clearing her throat.

Carly just snorted, "Like her hat? She made it herself, and you're probably going to get one for Christmas if you aren't careful."

"There is nothing wrong with my hats Carly; you love the one I made for you! Right?"

"Yea Mom, I wear it now and again, you know I love it! I just can't wear it at school. But anyways, Sharon is my partner for a something in Econ, so we might be hanging out after school for awhile. Can we have pizza as a snack? Please?"

Sharon sat, watching these two interact, they spoke so fast and so openly with each other, it made her smile. Before she knew it Mrs. Hernandez was excusing herself to go order the pizza and leave them be.

"So, that was my mom, she makes handbags for people, although mostly she's a housewife, cooks, cleans, tells me to clean up my room. And she makes hats of course," Carly added, laughing again. "Aaaanyways, let's see where we could start," she carried on, pulling out the Econ paper again.

Sharon slowly started to warm up, Carly was always bouncing ideas off of her, wanting her insight, wanting to include her; she was slowly winning Sharon over. After they ate pizza and finally decided on a company product, it was time for Sharon to head home.

"Um, Carly, could you take me home now? I like to be there before Mom gets back from work."

"Of course, not a problem, do you have all your stuff?"

Sharon nodded her head, having gathered all her loose papers already; she said a quick goodbye to Mrs. Hernandez before following Carly back out to the truck. She gave the Junior quick directions to her house, the business conversation continuing as they drove. When they got to her house, Sharon whispered goodbye and hopped out of the truck, jogging up to her front door. As she glanced back over her shoulder, she was surprised that Carly was still there, waiting for her to get in the house, offering up a warm wave before finally putting the truck into gear. Sharon went up to her room to work on her other homework, happy that she got partnered with Carly, even if they were polar opposites.

*The Next Day*

The class had the whole period to work on their project so Carly was sitting with Sharon again; plopping into the chair next to her like she had always sat there. Together they pulled out their papers and got to work, Carly working on coming up with a quirky company name while Sharon worked on advertising strategies. Before they knew it, the bell rang, signaling the end of 2nd period.

"Hey, Sharon, would you be okay if we sat together at lunch? That way we can work on this some more, I like to have things done early so there is no stress, you know? It's cool if you'd rather sit with your friends though," Carly added good-naturedly.

Sharon blanched, Carly was a Junior, didn't that mean she'd have to go sit with other Juniors? Sharon wasn't sure she could handle anymore upper classman, not after having to deal with Jackson all the time, and he was only a Sophomore! She blinked as Carly waved her hand in front of her face, apparently she had spaced out in her moment of anxiety.

"It's fine, you won't hurt my feelings if you want to sit with your friends, honest. I'm a big girl, are you okay?" Carly asked, seeing the crestfallen look on her partner's face.

"Yea, it's just, I…I don't really have friends here besides Cam you know. I usually sit outside for lunch because I don't want to sit by myself, I'm way too shy to try and ask someone if I can sit with them. Cam sits with me though, even if that means kinda ignoring some of the other guys he knows," Sharon admitted, feeling embarrassed.

But Carly understood what that was like so she put a comforting hand on her shoulder, "That's fine, we can sit outside, Cam won't mind right? He seems like a really good friend."

Sharon nodded her head, fidgeting with one of the straps on her pack, at least this way she didn't have to sit with any Juniors! It was still going to be weird sharing her table with someone else besides Cam though. Carly gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before letting go, telling her that she'd meet her at the Cafeteria entrance.

*Lunch*

Sharon stood outside the cafeteria, continuously readjusting her back pack as she waited for Carly to appear. It took a few moments, but Carly showed up, apologizing because her teacher ended up holding them back since they wouldn't be quiet.

"Come on, I'm just going to tell my friends that I'll be gone, don't want them to worry about me," Carly said, pushing open the doors.

Taking a deep breath, Sharon followed behind her, looking down at her feet the whole way; she was so nervous that she bumped into Carly's bag when she suddenly stopped. She could feel her face turning red, feeling clumsy for not even noticing that she had stopped walking, barely listening as Carly gave her friends a quick explanation before walking off again, Sharon right behind her.

"Where to? Is Cam already out here?" Carly asked as soon as they were outside, turning to look at the shorter teen.

Carly noticed her red face, feeling bad that she made Sharon follow her to the table; maybe she should have just met her outside instead. She waited patiently as Sharon came out of her anxious funk and led the way to the right table. As they sat down Cam noticed his best friend's face.

"Sharon, what's wrong?" he asked, looking to Carly for answers.

Carly gave a small shrug, completely unsure as to what was wrong. Instead she pulled out a baggie of Reese's Pieces and offered them to Sharon, "You alright?"

Sharon nodded her head and grabbed a small handful of the candies, eating them one at a time, still looking at her hands and not at her companions.

Carly decided to give her some time, so she pulled out the rest of her lunch and took a few bites, glancing at the other girl every so often. Cam followed suit, knowing that Sharon was embarrassed about something; that meant the more he tried to push the more she'd close up. This was something he'd have to wait out, especially since Carly didn't know why she was embarrassed either. It took a few moments before Sharon was ready to speak.

"Sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to run into you, I wasn't paying attention."

Carly shrugged, "It's fine, it's not like you were running or anything, barely even felt it. What else is on your mind?"

Sharon sighed, not sure how to continue, "I just always feel so nervous around people, I feel like I probably embarrassed you in there…"

Cam sighed, "Sharon…"

"That's nothing to worry about, those kids don't care, they are really laid back. It's not like I introduced you, so you didn't even have to say hi. They probably didn't even give it a second thought after we walked away. Don't worry about it okay?" Carly suggested, smiling at the girl.

"Yea, okay. Thanks for not yelling at me for being a stupid Freshman."

Carly almost choked on her candy as Sharon said that, "Why would I do that? Everyone was a Freshman once, it's not like you can avoid it! Well, I mean maybe if you skipped a grade but, well you know what I mean. Do people say that to you a lot? What classes are you taking?"

Sharon looked up, surprised at the fierce reaction, she reached into her bag and pulled out her schedule, handing it over. Carly scanned it quickly before handing it back, commenting on it.

"You're in Bio, English 10 and Econ, hardly Freshman classes. How can anyone call you a dumb Freshie? Ugh, I swear, high school is so stupid sometimes… Why are Freshman picked on all the time? No wonder you sit out here all the time, I would too."

"If we both sat in there, I'd hardly be at school I'd be getting into so many fights," Cam admitted before nonchalantly taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Cam, that's awful, if you got into fights then what would I do while you were suspended? That's why we sit out here, to keep you out of trouble!" Sharon countered, Cam's usual attitude pulling her out of her funk. The she turned to Carly, "You weren't picked on as a Freshman?"

"Hardly, I was much more punk as a Freshie," Carly laughed. "I think a lot of people avoided me because I was weird. I wore safety pins for earrings and had my hair in a spiked ponytail, no one wanted to talk to me. But then people found out I was smart, I think I surprised the teachers too. Slowly I won people over with my friendly attitude and they learned you can't always judge people. But apparently there are still assholes in the school. You should act more like I did, then people wouldn't bother you."

"Whoa, whoa… that was you? Holy crap, I _saw_ you during my 8th grade trip here."

"Really? Wasn't I totally badass?" Carly asked.

"Uh, not quite the words I would use but at least you followed your own style. I mean I can tell that you didn't wear that as a shock value thing like some 'goth' kids do. You rocked the style to say the least. I do like this version better though, much tamer."

Sharon just gaped at her while they were talking, "You think I can pull of spiked hair and safety pin earrings… and bands tee shirts with things like –squints so she can read Carly's shirt- Disturbed, with a creepy guy on it?"

Cam shook his head, "No, no, I won't let you Sharon. You'll have even more trouble if you do that. Don't draw any more attention to yourself."

Carly burst out laughing, the look on Sharon's and Cam's face was priceless, "Okay, maybe you couldn't and Disturbed by the way is awesome, hardly the heaviest band I listen to. Just don't focus on it too much I guess, I mean, you have friends in class right?"

Sharon just kind of shrugged and Cam reached over to grab her hand, neither committing to an answer, which was plenty of an answer for Carly. She felt bad for Sharon, it wasn't really fun to go through school and not have friends; Carly decided then and there that she wanted to be Sharon's friend (and by extension, Cam's friend too).

As they got up to head to 4th period, Carly casually asked Sharon a question, "Do you want to hang out tomorrow at lunch, I don't mind eating out here, it's kinda nice."

Suspecting the teen's motive, Sharon looked over at Carly, searching her face for any sign of teasing, but she saw none. She smiled warmly at her, nodding her head, that would be nice. They promised to meet up after school again before parting ways. Cam put his arm around Sharon as they walked back into the school, promising to be there tomorrow. So far Carly seemed nice, but she was a Junior that he knew almost nothing about- he didn't trust her yet.

*After School*

Carly was standing in the same spot as yesterday, totally preparing to offer Sharon some food on the way home, she was definitely craving some Wendy's today. It wasn't long before Sharon appeared and they hopped in the truck (this time Carly had turned down the radio before turning off the truck, so it wasn't super loud when she turned it on). She told Sharon about the quick detour, offering to get something for her if she wanted, and Sharon decided to take her up on the meal, Wendy's fries were delicious. By the time the pair made it to Carly's house, Sharon was in a much better mood than before.

"You know, we can always take a break from Econ if you want, we can just chill or maybe work on other stuff. I'm in Spanish as well, so we could totally study together if you want, you know just to mix it up," Carly offered, wanting Sharon to feel welcome here and more relaxed.

"That sounds nice, since we have plenty of time for the Econ project and we have a test in Spanish tomorrow that I'd really like to study for."

Carly smiled, "Sounds like a plan."

*A few days later*

A pattern slowly started to emerge between the two teens, almost every day after school, they would head to Carly's house for studying and homework, often working on more than just Economics stuff. And the times they didn't have homework, or they had something else to do outside of school, Carly would give Sharon a ride home; always making sure she got in the house safely.

They were slowly becoming friends, eventually sharing more about themselves and talking about the lives outside of school. The first time Sharon actually got to see Carly's room, she had been completely taken aback. The walls were filled with sketches of animals and anime characters, even original drawings. Some were painted and some were left just as pencil sketches; Sharon took a long time looking over all of them before staring at Carly.

"What, where you expecting it to be all black with band posters everywhere," Carly joked.

'Uh, kinda yea," Sharon admitted.

Carly just laughed, "I love my bands, but I love drawing more, so I started doodling on my walls when I was a kid. Mom never got mad at me or made me erase them, she loved seeing me express myself, and as I got older I started painting them."

"I love to draw too, mostly doodle but I also do more serious stuff, I had no idea we had that in common," Sharon said, looking back over some of the art again.

"Well, that's the fun part of making friends, finding all the things that you have in common, it's surprising sometimes isn't it?"

Sharon smiled warmly, "Yea, you're right."

*Later in the school year*

Long after the Economics project was done, Carly and Sharon were still hanging out every day, Cam responsibly tagging along; sometimes they'd eat outdoors and very rarely the two of them would come and eat with Carly's other friends. But Carly didn't seem bothered by it at all, she never complained about missing her old friends, or hoping that Sharon would try and get to know them better, she just let her be herself. That was probably Sharon's favorite thing about her, Carly never seemed disappointed in the choices that she made (other than her lack of music experience), and always made her feel normal.

When Sharon had a bad day, Carly was always there to help out, give her a shoulder to lean on and an ear to vent to, always taking her side of things. Sharon was starting to see why friends were important, she hadn't really had any close friends like this since middle school. She was coming to depend on Carly a lot and she surprised herself by being okay with it. Up to this point, she'd only had Cam, and she loved Cam…but this was different with Carly. Cam and Sharon had grown up together, had been thrown together at a young age and stuck through everything. They'd had some bad times, rough weather here and there but they always managed to work through it. With Carly, they were random classmates that got paired together; as soon as the project was over there was nothing stopping Carly from moving on. Carly's friendship proved to Sharon that she had something to give to others and that she had value.

The best part was that Cam had become very accepting of the older teen as well, although it didn't take a lot for the two of them to realize how much they had in common. At first Sharon had been unsure since, at least by first appearances, they seemed completely different. Cam was always dressed nicely, didn't talk to many people whereas as Carly was very punk and super friendly to almost everyone around her. But they had a mutual love of vehicles and Sharon, leading to them to figuring out other things they had in common; often talking about their favorite comic book characters or favorite authors. Sharon could tell that he was holding back still but he at least wasn't giving her the cold shoulder or minimal conversations. What really sealed their friendships was what happened after a particularly nasty day.

Sharon came bursting out of her History class, tears spilling out of her eyes; Cam, who was just exiting his French class, immediate ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her.

"What happened, what's going on?" he asked.

"It's Jackson again, he decided to be extra rude to me today in History and it just really got to me. He did leave me alone for awhile but for some reason it's fun again. I'm fine, let's just go meet up with Carly," Sharon said, wiping her face with her sleeve.

Cam glanced around for the bully but he was already long gone, so he led his best friend down to the first floor and out the front doors. Carly turned around and saw them, her smile dropping quickly.

"Why are you crying?"

"Jackson decided to pick up his bullying again, figures Sharon is fun to pick on once more. Guess he didn't learn his lesson last time," Cam spat out vehemently. "Come on, let's get her to the truck."

But Carly was having none of it, she was tired of hearing about Jackson being a rude asshole to her. When Sharon had first confided in her about her issues with Jackson, Carly had been livid. Sharon didn't want her to say anything to him, figuring it was best if it was just left alone. But Carly couldn't see her upset like this and not do anything about it. Plus she knew that Cam had plans to confront Jackson as soon as Sharon was safely tucked away, and there was no way she was going to let him have all the credit. Jackson needed to be stopped.

"No, Jackson needs to see that she has friends that aren't going to let him get away with this, and I'm her friend too- let's go!" She grabbed Sharon's hand and started off towards the field, but Cam jumped between the two girls.

"Whoa, whoa, I'm not going to let you go out on the field and get your ass beat," Cam whispered, keeping Sharon safely tucked under his other arm. If they talked quietly enough then hopefully she wouldn't get upset any further.

Carly caught on fairly quick and whispered back, "I can handle myself, thank you very much! Besides I'm not actually going to fight him, not with Coach Finstock there. I'm actually saving your ass too! Do you want to get suspended?"

"Better to be suspended for defending Sharon than to let Jackson think he can get away with this crap! I can, and will, knock some sense into him. Take her to the truck, she doesn't need to see this!"

"Just let me handle it, and Sharon is a big girl, she needs to see that Jackson isn't untouchable! I know how to deal with simpletons like Jackson… beside if you handle it, Jackson it likely to end up dead, and since you only have a motorcycle, that means you'd have no way to transport his body and you'd have to use my truck. I am not letting my baby sit in a police impound lot because you might not know how to cover your tracks! Let. Me. Handle. It."

Cam finally backed down, partially because he was slightly surprised at Carly's insight, so he let her lead the way. As soon as they were close enough, Carly started yelling out his name to get his attention.

"Whittemore! Hey, Whittemore! You asshole, what's wrong with you? Huh?" Carly shouted, as Cam gently pushed Sharon behind him to block her from Jackson's glare.

"Do you get off on teasing Freshman? Do you think it makes you big and bad? Boy, I wish I'm around when someone knocks you down a peg or two. Hell, maybe I'll just do it myself, right now. Be warned Jackson, you better stop treating her this way or so help me I'll-"

"What will you do freak?" Jackson cut in, finally getting over his initial shock.

He grinned at her like he won, and started to turn back to the other players, Sharon's two defenders grinding their teeth in anger. Cam reached forward but Carly knocked his hand away and grabbed the back of Jackson's jersey and spun him around, "I'll curse you Whittemore."

Sharon peeked around Cam's shoulders and saw Jackson's face go as white as a sheet, his mouth feel open and all the lacrosse players gasped.

"Y-you wouldn't dare, you don't do stuff like that. You're bluffing!" Jackson called out, trying to appear brave.

Carly scoffed at his attempted bravado, raising her hand to her mouth and biting into the meat of her palm, and drawing blood. She smeared the blood across her palms with her lips and reached her hand out to him, calling out in another language. Sharon felt herself go pale, Carly was going to curse him? She knew curses?

Jackson didn't give her time to finish, he swore at her and then sprinted off towards the locker room, no doubt to get Coach Finstock. Carly gave a satisfactory grin with her blood smeared lips, looking around at all the other players, giving a quick wink to her friend Matt. Then she spun around and ushered the other two back to the truck, Sharon not saying a word.

As soon as she unlocked the doors, Carly pulled a tissue out from her door panel and clamped it down on her hand, wiping the blood from her mouth the back of her good hand. Then she smiled over at Sharon and Cam, "Did you see the look on his face?"

"Exorcism huh? Somehow I doubt he's being possessed by a demon… even if he is a complete ASS," Cam laughed, giving the punk teen an appraising look. "By the way, it's 'Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura' you pronounced Ecclesiam as Exlasiam, small mistake."

"No way, you know Latin too? Sharon, your friend is awesome! What other languages do you know? I love languages!"

But Sharon just looked at Carly, interrupting before Cam could answer, "Yo-you know curses, like black magic?"

Carly easily picked up on the tremor in her voice, "No, no, I swear I don't. I was just speaking Latin, well, kinda, I'm rusty and as Cam pointed out, my pronunciation isn't perfect. And I just bit my hand because everyone is suddenly afraid when blood comes into play. Like Cam figured out, it was just an exorcism. You should watch Supernatural you know, could learn lots of interesting things."

Sharon collapsed against the Cam, so relieved; she knew Carly wouldn't lie about something like that. Cam was still chuckling to himself as he relived the moment.

"Well you sure showed me, apparently you do know how to handle yourself. Luckily Jackson doesn't know Latin. And by the way, I know Latin, Spanish, and am learning French; I'm always open to learning new languages as well."

"Ha, that's a hilarious thought, I swear he barely knows English. But, no telling anyone that was fake, it would totally ruin the reputation I didn't know I had. Maybe we can study Rosetta Stone over the weekend some time."

Sharon laughed then, all the tension leaving her body, "Do people automatically think you can cast curses just because you like heavy metal?"

"Pretty much, yea," Carly shrugged.

Cam pulled Sharon in for a tight hug and helped her climb into the truck, offering to follow them to Carly's if he wanted her company. Both girls nodded, thinking it would be nice to have him come over. Before Carly could climb into the truck, Cam caught her arm.

"Thanks, not for saving my ass or anything. But, it's really good to know that someone else is really looking out for her you know? It's easy to be mad and talk to her when she's upset, but to actually take the fight to the bully, that means a lot. Now I can really know that you'll stand up for her as much as I would," Cam whispered.

Carly gave him a genuine smile, "Yea, and not get suspended while doing it. I know it's easy to think I have shallow friendships since I'm friends with so many people. But Sharon, she's a good person, I wasn't going to let her go through high school with only one friend. I'm so happy she let me in, I feel really close to her despite some of our differences and I won't let anyone hurt her."

Cam nodded and gave Carly a quick hug, whispering another thank you before letting her climb into the truck. As soon as Carly started the truck up, Sharon crawled across the seat and hugged Carly, whispering a soft thank you; she had never had someone go through so much trouble for her, in that moment, she knew they'd be friends for a long time.

* * *

><p>AN: Here is the first part of the story. Feel free to click the links on my profile, that way you can see the various styles we have set up for our characters. My polyvore has clothes setups for Carly and Ran, Sharon's has Sharon, Cam, the twins, Adam, and Matt.


	2. Prologue part 2

*Meeting Ran*

Carly woke up early, today was her birthday and she was so excited that it was on a Sunday this year; no school and singing in every class. Plus this meant Mom was making breakfast, although it was nothing special, just pancakes and bacon, but she loved when Mom made breakfast for her. She ran down the hall and into the kitchen, giving her mom a hug, although she was slightly surprised to see her dad in the kitchen too.

"Hey Dad, good morning! I didn't think you'd be up yet."

"But it's your birthday, of course I'm up, I'm going to making some fried potatoes to go with breakfast, did you want some?"

"Yea! Those are delicious, how could I pass on those?" Carly responded, giving him a hug as well.

Then she went into the living room to grab a book off the bookshelf, bringing it into the kitchen. She loved to read at the bar while Mom was cooking, even if they didn't say much, it was still spending time together. When the food was ready, they all sat down at the table and ate, Carly telling her parents about school and her friends; because her dad worked long hours, she hardly got to see him.

"Don't forget, we're going over to your Aunt's house for lunch and presents! So be ready to go by noon."

"Okay, I will be, thanks again for breakfast, love you guys!"

The rest of the morning was spent by Carly lazing around on the couch reading her book; she quickly got dressed as they were getting ready for lunch. She quickly messaged Sharon, telling her that they were on the way to pick her up for the celebrations. By now, they had become best friends, so it would have been weird if she wasn't going to be there.

By the time they arrived at her Aunt's house, Carly was excited, making guesses as to what Sharon might have gotten her. But Sharon kept laughing, telling her that she was never going to guess, which only made Carly guess harder!

Carly kept Sharon by her side while they had lunch, knowing that she didn't know anyone here besides her parents. She introduced her shy friend to her aunt and uncle and then her grandparents before letting her escape to the kitchen to get food. Carly had a great time with her family and Sharon, and she was beyond ready to open presents.

"Present time! Gimme gimme," Carly laughed, sitting on the ground by all the presents.

"Open mine first," Sharon whispers, knowing that she'd be confused.

Carly nodded and takes the gift bag from her friend, reading the personalized card first, "Oh that's sweet, thank you," Carly comments, hugging her best friend.

Then she takes out all the tissue paper and reached into the bag, taking out a pack of small cups, a confused look on her face. She looked into the bag and found some more stuff, a couple of small bowls and plates.

"Thanks Sharon, I will totally have a miniature tea party with the ants out back," Carly laughed, wondering if this was a gag gift.

Her aunt then gently passed her a box, "Open this one next."

Carly took the box, and undid the ribbon tying to closed; she slid the top off and gasped as she looked at the contents. Inside the box was the most adorable little Werewolf looking up at her, ears perked up. She gently reached in and pulled out the wolf, understanding why Sharon had given her the small gifts.

"Hey there girl, I'm Carly, nice to meet you."

The little Were nodded her head and waved, a small smile on her face. But she didn't say a word, which didn't bother Carly, she just reached up and rubbed her head.

"I got her from my friend, you know Karen, the breeder I know?"

"Karen breed her? Really?" Carly asked, the little wolf looked distinctly Asian, and last she had heard, Karen only had American Weres. But her Aunt continued to explain.

"Earlier this year her and her husband traveled to Japan and took a bunch of her Weres with them, it turns out there were a bunch that wanted to travel. And because she's a licensed breeder it wasn't hard for her to take them to a foreign country. And when she got there, she met up with a Japanese breeder that fell in love with her Weres. So they decided to swap Weres basically and Karen brought home Japanese Weres; she's been breeding them pretty successfully.

"When I went over there to pick on out, I saw Ran and she was sitting on the table reading when all of the other Weres were running around. Karen explained that Ran is very quiet, she really doesn't like to talk much, but she does speak. I realized she was the perfect Were for you, since you spend a lot of time reading and drawing," her aunt explained.

"Ran, that's a beautiful name, what does it mean?" Carly asked as she continued to pet her new mini wolf.

"Water Lily is what Karen told me, a beautiful name for a beautiful wolf."

Carly slowly brought the Were up to her cheek, nuzzling her, she felt tiny little hands reach up and stroke her cheek. Apparently Ran liked her as well. She wasted no time in opening the rest of her presents with Ran in her lap. Everyone had gotten together and bought her a lot of supplies for her new pet and she loved them all.

After all the presents were opened, she went around and thanked everyone and introduced Ran to the whole family, Sharon included. After presents it was time to clean up and head back to the house so she could explain everything to Ran. When they got back into the car, Sharon shyly pulled out another bag that she had hidden under the seat.

"Here's another gift, I didn't want to have you open it in front of everyone, it might have been embarrassing," she explained, handing the bag over.

Ran sat on her shoulder as she quickly reached in the bag and pulled out a small seat. Carly looked at it, noticing a hole in the bottom, but she had no idea what it might have been for.

Sharon blushed, "I looked up some stuff about Were care and noticed that they suggest getting a little bathroom seat for them. There are a lot of different things you can do for your Were, like setting up a small litter box for odor control and Ran can use the seat, you know so she doesn't have to like squat."

"Ooooh, brilliant! Did you make this?"

"Yea, it took awhile in Shop class, but I figured it was better than you having to buy some expensive seat for her at the store."

"Thank you Sharon, I'm sure Ran really appreciates it, right Ran?" Carly asked, running her finger down the wolf's stomach.

"Woof," Ran called out softly, nodding her head.

Carly and Sharon beamed, it was the first noise that Ran had made all day. Carly couldn't wait to build up a relationship with this adorable wolf.

*Meeting Sabastian and Connor*

The weather was starting to suck, Sharon really wished that Spring would hurry up and get here already. It was Saturday and she had just gotten out of bed and she had the house to herself, which meant Cam had spent the night to help keep her calm. Maybe she'd call Carly and see if she could come over later, the more the merrier right? As she stumbled into the kitchen, she was startled awake by a scratching noise; that wasn't anything in the kitchen that should be making that noise. She made a light whining noise, what if it was a mouse, or a rat?

She slowly crept around the kitchen, listening for the noise again, trying to pinpoint which cabinet it was coming from. When she was sure which one the creature was hiding in, she grabbed the first thing she saw on the counter (turned out to be a wooden spoon, very deadly), and reached out for the handle.

"Cam, Caaaaam, please tell me you're awake," she called out. "Please don't be a mouse, please don't be a mouse, pleeeeease don't be a mouse," she chanted, building up the nerve to open the door.

With a final chant, she throw open the small door and held up the spoon, eyes searching for the culprit. Her mouth fell open in surprise, staring up at her with a mouth full of Cheerios was a little male Were, eyes wide in terror. He quickly swallowed and ran, diving behind the other cereal boxes, little blonde tail sticking out. Sharon quickly dropped the spoon, still in disbelief but gently calling out to him.

"Hey little guy, I'm sorry I scared you. Are you okay?" she asked, using her softest voice.

"What's going on?" Cam called out, bat held out and ready to crack someone's head.

"Shh, Cam it's okay, false alarm. You scared him.

"What?" he asked, eyes still a little bleary and hair standing on end.

"I found-"

"Connor!" the Were interrupted.

Which confused her, was Connor his name? Why was he yelling it at her? But then she understood as she heard more scurrying and a second wolf came into view. He looked just like the first one, except he had straight hair where the first one had curls. He noticed her standing there and squeaked out in surprise, quickly joining his brother behind the boxes.

"Hey, it's okay, you can come out of there, don't worry, I won't hurt you. I promise, you just startled me was all. How did you guys get in here?"

She stood there and waited, knowing what it was like to be in a stressful now place; Cam slowly but the bat on the table and crept closer wanting to see who was causing the fuss. Eventually the second brother, Connor poked his head out, carefully sniffing the air and looking at her. Sharon smiled at him, he was just too adorable, hopefully she'd get them out of the cabinet soon, Mom might have a fit if they decided to live there. Slowly the twins became more comfortable to her and Cam's presence and came out from behind the box, but they were dancing from foot to foot, ready to flee at any sign of movement from them.

"H-hi," Connor whispered, giving the smallest of waves.

He pulled his brother close to him, wrapping his arms around him protectively, Connor must be the braver one of the two Sharon decided.

"Sorry for stealing food, we're just so hungry. Please don't hurt us."

Sharon gave a small gasp, eyes going wide, "I wouldn't hurt you, you can't help that you're hungry. If you come sit out on the counter, I'll see what we have in the fridge, something besides dry cereal."

The brother with curly hair perked up at her words, that sounded yummy, but only if Connor felt it was safe. They looked at each other, silently debated if they should trust her; after just a moment, their hunger won and they slowly crept forward to the edge of the cabinet.

"I promise, Sharon is a really nice person, she'll find you something really delicious," Cam promised.

Very slowly Sharon raised up her hands, letting them sniff her all they wanted, not rushing them. It was a bit before Connor took the first step onto her hands, his brother quickly following, not wanting to get separated. Once they were safely tucking into her palm, she walked over to the counter and set them down, watching as explored a little bit. She would have continued to watch them, but she remembered that they were hungry so she skipped to the fridge and opened it, wondering what they might want.

As she looked through everything, she glanced back at the wolves and noticed how thin they looked. Meat would probably be the best thing for them at this point. So she pulled the sliced ham out of the refrigerator and grabbed the bread from the counter. Then she grabbed a napkin and pulled out a slice of bread, flattening it just a bit with the palm of her hand. After that she worked quickly, pulling apart a couple of slices of meat and layering them on the bread, folding it over and presenting it to the wolves. She tore off a small bit and held it out for one of them to take.

Connor looked at the sandwich and felt his mouth start to water, but he took the sandwich and offered it to his brother. But as soon as he took the small piece from her hand, she tore off some more and quickly held it out, so both brothers could try some at the same time. They wagged their tails, sitting down to eat the food. Between the two of them, the sandwich was gone in no time.

Sharon went and grabbed a bottle of water, twisting off the cap and filling it; she didn't have any small cups so this would have to do for now. As soon as she put it down, both brothers went for it, but they couldn't both drink at the same time. So one twin drank the cap first, and when Sharon refilled it, the other brother drank. After a couple of capfuls, both brothers were feeling much better.

"Thank you Miss. My name is Connor, and this is my brother Sabastian," the braver Were introduced.

"I'm Sharon, that's my best friend Cam, it's nice to meet you both, even if we did give each other a scare at first. How did you get in here? Why aren't you with your Owner?"

At her words, both the Weres wilted, shoulders sagging and ears drooping. It was Connor that spoke up again, "We got abandoned Miss Sharon, our other Owner just dropped us off on the lawn before driving away. We were so scared, we don't know what happened!"

Sharon gasped, "That's awful, who would do such a thing?"

"Probably a lacrosse player if I had to guess," Cam mumbled. Sharon gave him a look before turning back to the twins to hear what they had to say.

Sabastian started to sniffle, feeling heartbroken. "They had a kid, and he'd play with us all the time, although he was young so we had to be careful he wouldn't play too rough. But he was the bestest friend ever. Sometimes he forgot to feed us, but it wasn't his fault!"

Connor took over explaining as Sabastian wiped his eyes, "We don't know what we did wrong, please don't take us to the pound! We're really sorry for taking food, we were just hungry and scared. We managed to climb up into the mail slot, we wanted help but it didn't look like anyone was home. And we smelled food!"

"Shh, it's okay, like I said, I'm not mad. It's not your fault you were hungry, or that you got abandoned! That was your Human's fault, that isn't right. But you two are lucky we don't have a pet, you might have gotten hurt!"

"We know, but we didn't smell any when we fell through the slot so we decided to adventure. You promise you aren't going to take us to the pound? We'll go back outside if you want, just not the pound," Connor cried out.

Cam spoke up again, seeing their fear, "Sharon would never just abandon you, she has too big of a heart."

Spurred by Cam's words, Sharon reached out and picked up the two Weres slowly, and nuzzled them against her cheek. She felt them shaking in terror at first, clearly afraid, but they calmed down once they realized they weren't getting hurt.

"I won't take you to the pound, you both deserve to be loved and cared for, you're both just so adorable. But I don't know what to do with you, where do you want to go?"

Sabastion and Connor looked at each other, unsure of what to say, but when they turned back to the human holding them, they both shyly asked, "Could we stay with you?"

*Meeting Each Other*

"Hey Ran, guess what? Sharon found some Weres at her house, and she convinced her parents to let her keep the, isn't this exciting?"

Ran started clapping, excited for Sharon, she held up a closed fist, making a knocking motion for yes. Ever since Carly had found out that Ran didn't like to speak, she had begun looking up simple Signs for to teach her. It had quickly become a bonding experience as they watched videos online and read through books to learn as much as they could.

"She says that we can meet them today after school, since they finally feel comfortable enough to meet us. So I'll be a few minutes late getting home because we're stopping by her house to pick them up okay?"

Ran held up her fingers, giving Carly the sign for okay, she really couldn't wait to meet some Weres like her. She didn't mind being the only wolf in the house, but sometimes it was lonely. Now hopefully she'd have someone to play with while the Humans were at school.

"Well, I've got to get going, but Gotham and Mom will keep you company okay? See you after school!" Carly assured her, kissing Ran on the top of her head before setting her on Gotham's back.

*After School*

"I can't wait to meet your Weres, I hardly heard from you all weekend, but now I know why. Oh, this is so awesome! I bet they're super adorable!" Carly rambled on as Sharon met up with her.

"Can I come too? I haven't been over in awhile and I'm sure Gotham must miss me. Besides I haven't met Ran yet," Cam asked.

"Yea of course, you're part of the family too according to Gotham, and Ran has wanted to meet you as well. Let's go, let's go!"

Sharon giggled, knowing that Carly would be so happy to finally meet them. The weekend had been full of uncertainties, but by the end of the first night, Sab and Connor had been washed and fed, quickly attaching to her. When she had finally fallen asleep, they were both sleeping by her arm, clutching her sleeve as a subconscious effort not to be left behind. Then Sunday she had asked her parents if she could keep them, promising to take care of them and getting everything they needed. Her dad didn't have much of an opinion but her mom agreed to it. She explained that it would probably be good for her to make more friends, besides just Cam and Carly.

When Carly pulled up to the house, she quickly jumped out and ran into her house; she had managed to talk the twins into meeting her best friend. They were really unsure about all of this, new people scared them, which Sharon totally understood. But she explained that Carly also had a Were pet and that she was super nice and gentle.

"Hey guys, I'm home, are you ready to go? And don't worry, Cam is going to be there too," she called as she entered her room.

Both Weres popped up from her pillow, they had apparently been taking a nap. But they nodded their heads, holding each other's hand for comfort as she picked them up. As she departed, she looked around the room one last time, she hated that she had to leave them alone all day, she'd have to figure out a way to keep them busy while she was gone. When she took them out to the truck, they were shaking with nerves, but Sharon held them close, knowing her presence would comfort them; she hopped back into the truck and set the wolves on her lap before buckling in.

"Hi you guys, aren't you the cutest little things? I'm Carly, it's nice to meet you," Carly introduced herself, slowly reaching out her hand for them to sniff.

Sharon was petting them to keep them calm while they sniffed her hands; once they had happily sniffed everything, Carly drove back to her house.

*Carly's House*

"Okay now, when we go inside, you'll meet Ran and Gotham, my puppy. Well he's not really a puppy, he's big, but he's still my little puppy. But don't be scared, he's well trained and he loves Ran. So he knows how to be careful around Weres, he's just a bit excitable and will want to sniff you. But Sharon will be with you two and I'll be standing with Gotham okay? Just let us know if you get scared. I can always put him outside if you want me too. Ready?" Carly warned, knowing that her dog could be a surprise to humans, let alone the mini wolves.

She thought back to when she had first brought Ran home and Gotham came running up to greet her as usual. Poor little Ran let out the highest pitched scream into Carly's ear as the black lab jumped up; she ended up climbing into Carly's hair and hiding on top of her head for a long time. Poor Gotham had no idea what had made the noise, and he was sniffing around looking for the cause, but she kicked him outside so Ran could calm down. By the end of the night, Ran was ready to meet him though, after Carly promised over and over again that Gotham wouldn't eat her or step on her.

So they let Gotham back in and had him lay down, even though his tail was wagging like crazy, he did as he was told. Carly had slowly approached, shielding Ran in her cupped hands, the mini was clutching onto her fingers as she got closer to the large dog. But true to her word, Gotham stayed completely still, only reaching his nose forward in his eagerness to sniff the newcomer. Ran closed her eyes as she felt his breath on her face, nose sniffing wildly and whiskers brushing her skin; after a few more sniffs, Gotham gave her a very small lick, tilting his head wondering if they were friends yet. Ran giggled and reached out her tiny hand and patted the top of his nose, calling out a soft, "hi Gotham" as she did so.

Carly smiled at the memory, they had become almost inseparable after that, Ran would spend all day with Gotham and Mom while Carly was at school. As the pair walked into the house, she called out for Gotham, hearing him come thundering down the hall. Sharon held her minis close to her chest, giving them a space to hide where they felt comfortable. They squeaked when the dog made his appearance, Ran riding in on his back, clinging to his collar for safety.

"Hi you two, how are my little lovelies today?" Carly cooed, rubbing the dog's head before picking up Ran.

Then Gotham gave Sharon her regular greeting of sniffs and tail wagging as the pair went into the family room; then he caught sight of Cam. His energy doubled and he was bouncing around Cam's thighs in an effort to be petting and sniff every inch of the boy's pants at the same time. Sabastian and Connor could be seen poking their heads out between Sharon's fingers, glances split between the dog and Ran. Ran noticed their gaze and grinned at them, waving her hand in greeting.

Sharon introduced them as Carly made Gotham calm down, "Sabastian, Connor, this is Ran. She's Carly's Were pet and she's really quiet but friendly. Say hi you two, don't be rude," she said as she set them down on the couch.

Luckily Gotham was busy greeting Cam to bother with the two new Weres just yet. Connor stepped forward first, pulling Sabastian along behind him, together they looked at Ran as she made her way over to them from Carly's lap.

"Hi," she greeting in her quiet singsong voice.

Connor visibly relaxed as he heard her voice, someone with a soft voice like that could never be mean. His tail wagged, "Hello, i-it's nice to meet you. We were surprised when Mommy told us that she knew another Were besides us."

Sabastian took another step towards her, captivated by her long black hair and olive skin, "Where are you from?"

"Japan," came the single word response. Carly could tell that Ran was trying her hardest to be nice and talk with them.

"You have really pretty hair," Sabastian complimented, feeling a bit more talkative.

The twins approached the female wolf, each of them taking their time to sniff and get comfortable with each other. After a few moments of silence (Carly and Sharon were too captivated by their cuteness to say anything), Ran went back over to her owner and patted her leg.

"Cam?" she asked, looking at the boy on the floor.

Carly nodded, "Yup, that's Cam, he's Sharon's other best friend, the one we're always talking about. Cam, this is Ran, my Were pet."

"Nice to meet you Ran, uh hold on," he waved from the floor. Then he scrunched up his face and slowly Signed out 'nice to meet you' and smiled when Ran applauded him. She signed back saying that it was nice to meet him as well and then turned back to Carly.

"Read?" she asked, signing the name of the book she wanted.

"Ran wants to share her favorite book with you, is that okay?" Carly asked the twins, heading over to the bookcase.

"Okay," they responded, wondering what it might be.

Carly set the book down on the couch, watching as Ran opened it to her favorite page. It was a Wildlife book, categorizing all different species and each species had lots of pictures and a few paragraphs of their lifestyle. Ran eagerly pointed to the picture of the snow leopard, smiling at the boys. Then she tapped middle finger against her chin twice (hand open), signing 'favorite' to them. The boys climbed onto the large book, looking at all the pictures, Sabastian readily agreeing with Ran that the leopard was a pretty creature.

It wasn't long before all three Weres were flipping through the pages looking at all the other kinds of animals in the world. They had been nervous at first, but Ran's quiet nature put them at ease since she wasn't pushing conversation on them or asking too many questions. Sharon was happy that they seemed to be getting along, it would be disappointing if they didn't get along with her best friend's pets. Speaking of pets, Sharon remembered Gotham and figured it was best if they met him too, now that Ran was here to show them how gentle he was.

"Hey Ran, do you want to introduce them to Gotham, I think they might be a little nervous," Sharon asked, patting the twins on the head.

Ran nodded her head and gave a short whistle, calling the dog to her; the twins jumped, hiding behind the book as the dog looked up on the couch. Ran gave two clicks of her tongue, asking Gotham to sit, which he did. Then she turned back and gestured to the twins, patting the side of Gotham head. The dog rested his chin on the couch, eying to other two creatures, he was excited to meet more friends! But he knew that he needed to be patient.

Slowly the twins approached, holding onto each other once more, and Ran reached out and grabbed Connor's hand, gently pulling him closer. She set his hand on Gotham's nose, and Connor smiled, he had really soft fur; sensing that his brother approved, Sabastian came forward and started to pet the dog as well. Once she was sure that they were okay with Gotham, Ran climbed up on his head and started rubbing his ears, causing him to close his eyes in bliss.

"See, he's super nice, Ran rides him around the house all day when I'm at school."

"Yea, I saw that when we came in, looks like a fun ride," Cam commented.

Connor looked up at Carly, "Do you leave Ran home alone?"

Carly shook her head, "No, my mom is home and she watched her, just in case she needs food or water, or just wants to play. Sharon isn't your dad home during the day?"

Sharon sighed, "Yea he is but he doesn't want to be disturbed, so Sab and Connor sit in my room most of the day. I'm sure they got really bored while I was gone. I'm not sure what to do about it though."

Carly sat and thought for a moment, looking down at the three Weres; they had all climbed onto the dog and were rubbing his back with their tiny hands. "They seem to like Ran, do you think maybe they'd like to hang out here? I know they are shy, but you're here every day after school anyways right? Maybe they can meet Mom later, before you leave. I don't want to overwhelm them though."

Sharon asked the twins about it, saying it was okay if they just wanted to stay home, but when they heard that Sharon came over here all the time, they jumped at the chance to be dropped off here. If Mommy came here, they wanted to be here too, that way they wouldn't get left behind again. Sharon had to promise them that she'd always come back to them, and that Ran was here so they knew they wouldn't be abandoned or alone.

Sharon remembered that they had had a really hard time this morning when she explained that she had to go to school and couldn't take them. She promised that they could stay inside the house where they were safe, there was food and water and the bed. But they wouldn't let go of her, so afraid; so Sharon decided to show them the alarm clock, explaining to them how it worked and what time it would show when she'd get out of school.

"I live here, I have to come home you two, I can't abandon you here. I promise, it will be okay; I wish I could take you to school with me, but I can't. You can do whatever you want in here though, you can draw, or read or just sleep. And after school, I can introduce you to the other Were Ran, would that be nice?"

Sabastian sniffled, trying not to cry as Sharon explained that she had to leave, but he nodded his head, meeting another Were might be cool. As long as Mommy was there!

"You promise you'll be there? You aren't taking us to the pound right?"

Sharon cuddled them close, "You know that I'd never lie to you right? You know when I'm lying, so you know I'm telling the truth. I'm just taking you to meet my best friend and her Were pet. I see them every day after school and I want you to meet them as well."

Eventually they had calmed down, but Sharon was almost late to school because she spent so much time comforting them. But she didn't care, as long as they finally felt safe, she was fine with it.

Carly spoke then, bringing Sharon back to the moment, "Would you boys be alright with meeting my mom later today? She's at the store right now, but she'll love to meet you as well."

"Grandma is nice," Ran said, randomly joining the conversation, seeing that they were feeling slightly nervous. Out of habit she made the sign for it, her hand going to her chin and bouncing outward.

Sabastian held onto his tail, an old nervous habit of his, but nodded his head, he'd be brave as long as Mom was with him, Connor too!

To ease some of the tension, Ran suggested a game, "Tag?" she asked, pointing to the floor where they could play.

The boys nodded their head and jumped off of Gotham, both declaring 'not IT' at the same time. Sharon laughed as Ran rolled her eyes and took off after them, the boys laughing and squealing as they dodged her and split up. By the time Carly's mom had come home, the boys were worn out and feeling good that they had made another friend. They still felt a little nervous but this house seemed nice, and it might be better than staying all alone. They were a bit skittish when they met Ran's Grandma, but they waved politely, sitting together on Sharon's shoulder.

That night after Sharon and the wolves returned home, she asked them what they thought, both of them giving an honest opinion.

"I like Ran, she's not bossy or mean. Our other littermates were rude, especially the two Alphas of the bunch. But Ran is a Beta like us," Sabastian said.

Connor cut in, "But we're Omegas since we don't have an Alpha Sabastian, remember? But I do agree, Ran is nice. And she's quiet like you Mom."

"We don't need an Alpha, we have Mom!" Sabastian told his brother, crossing his arms.

Sharon laughed as she hugged them, this was a huge stepping stone for them, warming up to someone new and even starting to trust them, just a little bit. She was sure that they'd all become good friends once they started hanging out more.

* * *

><p>AN: There is the intro to our main characters (besides Adam) if you could all please do us a favor and comment/review this story? We want to get an idea of how many people are interested in this since we haven't gotten feedback on our AO3 accounts of this story. It would be much appreciated!


	3. First Day of School

*Monday*

Ran, Connor and Sabastian had all been so excited when they found out that they'd be allowed to go to school finally, although they were slightly bummed that they only had one class with each other. When Carly pulled up to Sharon's house, the boys cheered, today was their first day of school, they were sitting on Sharon's shoulder, each one sitting in a strand of ringlets, using them as a seatbelt to hold onto. When they climbed into the car, they joined Ran on the middle console, talking her ear off about what school might be like.

It hadn't taken the three of them long to become the best of friends, Ran instantly becoming like a big sister to them. She had to comfort them a lot those first few days that they came over, the missed Sharon a lot; but eventually they started to realize that Sharon always came to see them, like she had promised. And every night she took them home, so they settled into the pattern soon enough. But now they were started a new pattern! One where they didn't have to be left home alone all day (Gotham was fun and all, but school seemed way cooler!).

Sabastian and Connor grew quiet as they stepped inside the school, there were a lot of people here, a lot more than they had been anticipating. But the held on tighter to Sharon's curls and put on a brave face, they wouldn't let a large number of people scare them away (maybe).

Ran on the other hand was too excited to worry about all the other people, she was finally going to be learning again! Sure Carly let her look over the homework and all of her textbooks, but it wasn't the same as sitting and listening to someone teach you things. She watched as Carly gathered her books for her first few classes, apparently she was going to be learning Spanish, Economics, and maybe an English class (she couldn't be certain based off the title of the book). Then she looked over at Sharon's books, noticing the same Spanish and Econ books in her arms. But the book on top was about wood working, and Ran remembered how she had been the one to make her bathroom seat. The boys were lucky, they got to go to Shop class; but they'd have to be really careful, she didn't want to hear about any horror stories at lunch time!

The group said a quick good bye as they parted ways to go to first period.

*Second Period Econ*

Carly and Sharon showed up to class and were immediately assaulted by Coach, scaring the crap out the twins.

"Oh, are these the little Weres that I hear so much about? This is awesome, I get to have Weres in my class. Are you three ready to learn all about money, government, and big business?" Coach asked them, big smile on his face.

Ran nodded her head and clapped her hands to show her enthusiasm, while Connor and Sab were a little less enthusiastic but still smiling.

Coach waved them to their seats, still pretty excited to see the little critters, is he wasn't so busy he'd probably have a small army of them. As soon as he started teaching, Ran was sitting at the edge of the desk, hanging onto his every word. Spanish had been a little boring because the teacher only spoke in Spanish and she had never heard the language before. So this was her first class of the day that she was learning something she could understand.

Sabastian and Connor sat on Sharon's desk and watched as she took notes, the teacher was talking way too fast for Connor to really grasp what he was saying, but it seemed like Sharon understood him just fine. Sabastian was off on the other corner of the desk, daydreaming about all the things he could try to make in Shop class. He had been terrified at first with all the loud noises and the sawdust in the air (he had been sneezing almost all class). But as he watched Sharon work, he was fascinated!

The twins were startled out of their thoughts when they heard the teacher calling out Ran's name all of a sudden. Apparently he had asked a question and Ran was dancing on the desk trying to get his attention. She started Signing rapidly letting Carly translate for her and by the time she was done answering the question, Coach was praising her for being such a quick learner.

"How does Ran have any idea what's going on?" Sabastain asked his brother, brows raised.

Connor just shrugged, jaw hanging open as he sat there watching Ran Sign so rapidly. Over the past few weeks, he had come to understand Ran's facial expressions and how to read her body language, but he only stood a few simple hand signs. He realized that now they were in school, they might not hear her talk that much, she was much quiet to talk while around all these people, and that made Connor sad.

He remembered how that first day, he and his brother were so sad, Ran actually sang them a song to calm them down. He'd never admit it to anyone other than Sab and Mom but he had fallen in love with her voice (Sab had too). He sighed at the thought but knew Ran was happier not talking and he was okay with that. Connor started laughing as he saw his brother doodling on the edge of Sharon's notes, no doubt coming up with things for them to build tomorrow.

By the time the bell rang, Ran had probably become Coach's favorite student and Connor and Sab were going to tease her about it all the time. Leave it to a Were pet to become Teacher's Pet in one day. Sab gave her a congratulatory hug though, he knew that she loved to learn and that she had been reading all of Carly's textbooks to prepare for school since they first learned they'd be going.

The group waved goodbye to Coach as they left, he was a funny teacher, he just spoke too fast for the twins. Carly and Sharon split up again, Carly heading to English and Sharon to Spanish.

*Third Period Spanish*

Sharon took her usual seat, near the window and gave Cam a smile as they waited for class to start; luckily Mr. Schmidt didn't make a fuss over the Weres like Coach Finstock did, as long as they were quiet he was fine with them. Class started right on time, as usual and she started taking notes, not wanting to miss anything. Connor was reading over her notes carefully, easily grasping how it worked, he'd have to study all of Mom's old notes to pick up on what he missed but it shouldn't be too hard to catch up. Sabastian on the other hand was busy checking out the boy next to Mommy, he looked like he was writing down something different and he wanted to know why.

Sab made a split second decision, taking a few steps back and then making a running leap onto the boy's desk. He was lucky that Mommy and Connor were too busy to see him jump over here, she'd probably be mad, but he just had to know what the other boy was doing.

He watched as the boy was writing really complicated formulas, not really paying attention to his surroundings; he looked back at Mom to make sure she was still taking notes. But then the boy shifted in his seat and ended up touching the wolf and Sabastian jumped a good foot in the air, which of course cause the boy to startle as well (somehow he hadn't even noticed that little wolf standing on his desk). The startled squeak immediately got Mommy's attention though, her eyes quickly darting around to find her lost mini. When she saw him on her neighbor's desk, she felt her cheeks warm, what was he doing over there? She looked up at her neighbor and he had the most perplexed look on his face as he started down at the Were. Cam immediately glared at the boy, assuming he'd snatched the Were.

"Um, is he yours?" her neighbor asked in a quiet voice.

"Give him back dumbass," Cam whispered meanly.

Sharon nodded her head, wishing Cam hadn't said anything- he'd only make the other boy upset. She was way too shy to say anything to him, which was weird because he'd been sitting next to her for most of the year; although Sharon still only had two friends so maybe it wasn't that surprising. As she reached out to grab Sabastian, the boy gently scooped him up, not aware that the wolf wasn't good with strangers.

"Eeeek," Sab cried out, flailing around at the sudden contact.

He scrambled around, and tried to jump out of his hand but lost traction and ended up tripping over his own feet. Because of the close proximity, he only fell into Sharon's hand, but both Humans freaked out and leaned to catch him, hands banging together.

"God, be careful! Did you seriously almost drop him you idiot?" Cam lashed out.

"Oops," they both uttered at the same time, faces going red with embarrassment. Luckily the teacher had missed all of this so no one got in trouble. Cam groaned from behind Sharon, this was just awkward… what was Sabastian doing over there anyways?

"Sorry about that," the boy apologized, giving Sharon a sheepish smile, untangling his fingers from hers. "Cute little Weres you've got."

"Th-thanks," she stuttered, suddenly cursing her anxiety.

"That's enough there buddy boy, just.. stop talking…"

But he just grinned wider (choosing to ignore Cam), thinking it was the cutest thing, but he didn't want her to feel embarrassed so he turned back to his Physics homework. Sab looked up at Mommy with sad eyes, he didn't mean to scare everyone, but Sharon couldn't be mad at him, she was just glad he was okay and didn't fall onto the floor. He spent the rest of the period sitting on her shoulder, playing with her curls to avoid trouble.

*Lunch*

Carly met up with Sharon in the hall, instantly noticing Sharon's pink face, something must have happened. But Sharon didn't give her any time to ask, instead she just grabbed her arm and pulled her outside to their usual table, Cam trudging along behind them with a scowl on his face.

"Hungry?" Carly asked, unsure of what else to say.

Sharon dropped her face into her palms, mumbling something unintelligible and Carly had to ask her to repeat it.

"I'm embarrassed," she moaned.

Ran crossed the table and patted her arm, trying to console her while Sab and Connor both had a sheepish look on their faces.

"Something happen in Spanish? Did you give the wrong answer or something?"

Sharon shook her head, "No, worse!"

"Worse?" Carly asked, surprised. Sharon hated getting things wrong.

"Some dummy decided to-" Cam started.

"I talked to someone," Sharon wailed, looking up at her friend with a horrified expression on her face.

Carly had to stifle a laugh, "Talking to someone is worse than a wrong answer? You would think that. Explain."

Sabastian spoke up then, "It's kind of my fault Carly, I jumped on this kid's desk and things happened…"

Ran's eyes opened up wide and she tilted her head to the side, Sab was full of surprises. He was much quieter than Connor and very shy, but he was just so inquisitive sometimes, it didn't fit with his shy nature.

"What did the kid do?" Carly asked, wanting to make sure nothing bad happened.

"Touched him," Cam muttered dangerously.

"Well I noticed that he wasn't writing down the same stuff as Mommy, and I was wondering why not, what if Mommy was missing something! So I jumped over to the desk to look at it."

"I didn't even notice he left my desk, I'm horrible!" Sharon said, shoulders slumping.

"Are you sure he didn't lure you onto the desk?" Cam asked, not willing to trust the jock.

"No, you are a good Mom, you take good care of us," Connor assured her, he hated seeing her sad. "We just get into trouble sometimes, but it's not your fault!"

"Nothing bad happened to me Mommy, it's fine and I won't do it anymore, I promise. I wanted to see what he was writing, he didn't even see me at first, I swear," Sabastian added, wanting to please her.

Carly looked at the group, shaking her head at the 'wild' shenanigans they were getting into, "Okay, so Sab went exploring, what happened then? I'm failing to see the embarrassing part…"

Sabastian heaved a sigh, "Well, I have no idea what he was working on but it certainly wasn't Spanish, and I looked back to check on Mommy, and the boy bumped me with his arm and scared me…"

He paused, fingers running through his tail, a clear sign he was getting nervous again, Ran went over and ruffled his hair, giving him a smile. It worked to pull the wolf out of his slight funk and he continued his story.

"I kinda screamed, and I guess I scared the boy too, because he ended up jumping in his seat. Then Mommy noticed I was missing and went to grab me; but he picked me up too! I was scared, I thought maybe he was going to kidnap me! So I tried to jump off of his hand, and I kinda tripped, but Mommy caught me. So it turned out okay."

"It wouldn't have surprised me if he had tried to kidnap you!" Cam continued to rant.

"No it didn't turn out okay! When I tried to catch you, so did he and our hands clashed! We were practically holding hands, so embarrassing," Sharon revealed. "Then he mentioned that I had cute Weres and you know what happened then?"

"What?" Carly asked, an amused grin on her face. Blindly she reached over and patted Cam's shoulder, to let him know that she hadn't been ignoring his ranting.

"I said T-thanks, I stuttered! This is why I don't like talking to people," Sharon exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"I didn't know you stutter, you never did when we first met."

"It's only sometimes, like when I'm really nervous, and I felt so bad because I hit his hand, and I was expecting him to be mad at me. I'm just going to crawl into a hole and die!" she said as she plopped her head down on the table.

All the Weres whimpered and ran over to her, cuddling her head.

"You can't do that, what would happen to Connor and Sabastian? And look at Ran, she'd be sad too! And besides, I'd have to beat your spirit back into your body because I'm not driving to school by myself again."

Cam tacked on, "And that's not even including what I'd have to do to that nimrod for making you feel so bad!"

Sharon couldn't help but laugh and she lifted her head, grabbing up all three wolves and holding them close, "Sorry you guys, I was just being dramatic. I couldn't leave you. I wouldn't make you drive alone either Carly. Cam, thanks for always being the tough one for me."

"Hey, I'm tough too!" Carly called out.

After that, the group started joking and ate their lunch, Ran stealing the red gummy bears from Carly's lunch to give to Sabastian. It had been an accident when Ran found out that he loved gummy bears, but now that she knew, she was sure to bring some to school every day! She also made sure that Carly kept a stash of them at the house, along with M&M's for Connor.

When the bell rang, Sharon sighed, she didn't want to have to go to Biology and deal with Jackson, but it was unavoidable.

"Hey, you tell me if he gives you any grief! I'll give him another piece of my mind!" Carly stated, knowing that her drop in attitude was because of the lacrosse captain.

Cam on the other hand scowled again, knowing that Sharon wouldn't hide anything from them; Jackson's lifespan was becoming shorter and shorter. All the Weres perked up, wondering what was going on, and Carly realized that they never heard the story of what happened. As they separated to go to class, Carly promised to tell them all about it after school, they'd be sure to get a kick out of it.

*Fourth Period Physics*

Carly walked into class, eagerly introducing Ran to Mr. Nott, he was easily one of her favorite teachers, despite the hard work sometimes. Mr. Nott pushed up his glasses as he looked at Ran, smile on his face as he introduced himself. Carly quickly explained that Ran doesn't speak much, but that together they had learned Sign Language when she was interrupted by Ran patting her neck. Ran started signing, smiling up at the teacher, pausing as Carly interpreted.

"Carly talks about you all the time at home, she says you're her favorite teacher. I'm happy to meet you finally. Physics looks hard but I'll definitely try my best," she said, not even feeling weird talking about herself in the third person.

Mr. Nott laughed as Carly blushed at the spilled information, "Well, it's good to know at least of my students like me, I have a feeling a lot of them don't. Physics can be hard, but I try to make it as easy as I can. I'm glad that you're so interested in learning, just don't cheat now! Carly might try to use you as a secret note card, but don't let her."

Ran laughed, seeing why Carly liked him so much, she was sure he made learning fun, like Coach Finstock did. They took their seat as the final bell rang; they were sitting at long desks so Carly was sharing her desk with someone. Ran looked over at the boy as Mr. Nott started to go over yesterday's assignment. He had them all swap worksheets so they could be corrected and then passed back with all the right answers.

Ran stayed quiet as they went over everything, peering down at all the formulas she'd have to learn, but it seemed like a lot of fun, just hard work. After the corrections were done, Mr. Nott passed out a lab worksheet and left them all to their own devices. So Ran finally tapped Carly to get her attention, pointing to the boy and making the sign for friend, a questioning look on her face. Carly nodded her head and held out her hand for Ran to climb into, so she could introduce them.

"Hey Matt, guess who I brought?"

Matt, looked over at his lab partner and saw her holding a Were, he hadn't noticed her early since she was sitting on Carly's far shoulder. "Is this Ran, the Were I'm always hearing so much about?"

"Yup, Ran, this is Matt, my lab partner, say hi."

"Hello," Ran sang out, tail wagging. She was also so happy to meet more of Carly's friends.

She was set on the desk as the pair started going over the lab sheet, easily falling into a familiar pattern. Before long, a casual conversation started up between them, now that they got the lab started.

"So, I saw your friend's Weres too today, they are adorable, are they twins?" Matt asked.

"Ah ha! If you already saw them, that means you already had class with her, so it's one of her first three classes! And yes, Sabastian and Connor are twins. Why won't you tell me what class you have with her already?"

"Because if I do that, you're going to tease her about it, I know you Lee," he responded, using his nickname for her.

"I would not, I'd just give her a heads up is all. I mean, you sit next to her, why haven't you even tried talking to her?"

"Because I know she's super shy, she hasn't really said a word all year, unless the teacher calls on her. And her face turns all red every time. I don't want her to feel weird or awkward…" Matt said, starting to blush slightly. "Plus uh, the guy that sits behind her is a total dick, always interrupting me when I try to say anything.

"God, you are just like her sometimes," Carly sighed, clearly exasperated. He had found out that Sharon was Carly's best friend earlier in the year and confided that he thought she was super cute. "As for the guy behind her, maybe he's just jealous or something, who knows."

"Well why don't you do me a favor? Come watch me at lacrosse practice today, show me some support, yea?" Matt pleaded, for maybe the hundredth time in the last week. "And, so you aren't bored, you could maybe invite a friend to keep you company?"

Carly laughed, "And by friend I'm sure you mean Sharon!"

She took his flush as a complete yes, but she wasn't going to tease him too much about it. "I'm not making any promises, but I'll try and get her to come, okay?"

Matt's eyes grew wide and he threw his arms into the air, "Yes! Finally you've cracked! How many times have I asked you to come to lacrosse practice?"

"Too many, and after you found out Sharon was my best friend, it increased tenfold. Now do your work!" Carly chided, but smiling at her friend regardless, knowing he had good intentions.

"But don't tell her that I want her to come! That would be so embarrassing, promise, on our sacred lab partnership that you won't tell her!" Matt blurted out suddenly, wanting to cover all of his bases.

Carly rolled her eyes but held up her hand and swore an oath that she wouldn't breathe a word of it. Matt even had Ran hold up her hand too, to make sure Carly didn't try and cheat by making the wolf tell her. Once he was satisfied, they continued to work in silence for a moment before Matt brought up another topic, "You know, Jackson is still getting crap for what happened on the field last month. Every time he starts to yell at one of the players, they whisper your name and he just goes all pale. That was pretty brilliant."

Carly snorted, taken by surprise at his sudden comment. "He's still worried about that? He's such an ass!"

"Are you sure you don't know any curses Lee? He could really use one some days."

Carly just shook her head, not bothering to answer. Matt had totally flipped out the next day in class after that happened, he wanted to learn how to cast curses, he was so excited. Carly hated to break the news to him that she had been fibbing, but she loved that he wasn't freaked out by it at all. Matt really was a good guy, but she had taken her sweet time in judging him, _especially_ after he started showing interest in Sharon. She knew from experience that some guys can seem really nice and turn out to be complete assholes. She cared for Sharon way too much to just introduce her to Matt without getting to know him much better. Which was kind of difficult when they never hung out outside of class; but because she was so friendly and talkative, she had managed to get him to open up rather quickly (after he finally dropped the thought she was trying to kill him), and they talked about almost everything in Physics (except on test days). And maybe it was time he earned her seal of approval, today, she'd be dragging Sharon to lacrosse practice!

*Fifth Period Algebra 2*

Matt and Carly walked together to their next class, Matt still going on and on about finally seeing Sharon at practice. But he quickly shut up as they entered Mrs. Duff's class, she hated talking, even if class hadn't started yet. Ran noticed the change in atmosphere but was too afraid to ask what was wrong. Instead she jumped down onto the desk when Carly sat down, waving to Matt who was sitting on their left.

When Ran picked up on the scent of another Were, she scanned the classroom, tail swishing; she clapped and pointed them out to her owner when she spotted the boy. He had two Weres, and one of them was an Alpha! And they sat right next to her, on their right, how awesome. But Carly didn't have time to say anything because Mrs. Duff asked for the homework.

"Okay class, everyone hand in your homework, and I don't want to hear any excuses this time Mr. Stilinski, even if you did go out of your way to adopt some," she ordered everyone.

Carly's jaw dropped, did Mrs. Duff really just say that to a student? That was very uncalled for, Stiles did his homework most of the time. Sure he messed around a lot but he couldn't help that, he had ADHD after all. She saw his body completely tense up as he passed forward his homework, the nastiest look on his face. Ran's ear's flicked back as she sensed the female become sad, her human instantly cuddling her.

"Have either of them gone through Algebra 1?" she asked quickly, ignoring the look.

Stiles looked down and saw Derek shake his head, "No they haven't Mrs. Duff."

"Well then they don't really have to worry about passing this class. It will be much too hard for them to understand this late into the year. Do not let them distract you and they can stay at the desk with you," she said, turning to Carly, noticing that she had brought a pet too.

"I'm sure your pet doesn't have Algebra experience either so it's fine-" Mrs. Duff started.

But Ran interrupted her by stomping her foot and shaking her head viciously; she started signing, looking the teacher right in the eye.

"Ran says that she knows Algebra quite well and would be more than happy to demonstrate, she wants to learn. You shouldn't be so quick to judge," Carly spoke for her, holding back a smile at Ran's strong attitude.

Mrs. Duff huffed slightly at the wolf, how rude! "Up on my desk, I'll be the judge of that."

Carly picked up her Were, and deposited her on the desk, watching as the teacher wrote out a few complicated problems on a slip of paper. Then she handed the pencil to Ran and watched as the wolf quickly solved the problems, smiling innocently up at her when she finished. Carly had to bite her cheek to hold in her cheer as Mrs. Duff looked down in surprise, seeing that the wolf had answered them correctly.

"Fine, she passes, back to your seat, class has started."

As Carly picked Ran up, Ran stuck her tongue out at the teacher's back, not liking her at all! But at least now she was allowed to learn, although she wasn't really sure that the teacher could have stopped her anyways. It just felt good to show that teacher that she really did know math. When they sat back down at their desk, the boy named Stiles gave Ran a thumbs-up, an impressed look on his face. Ran beamed at his praise, noticing that the Alpha was looking at her in surprise as well. But then Mrs. Duff started teaching and Ran quickly followed along on Carly's notes.

When the bell eventually rang to excuse them, Matt reached over to give the Were a high five, whispering a congratulations to her before heading out, calling out over his shoulder that he expected to see them after school! Carly smiled and waved him off, heading to her last period, Trigonometry.

*After School*

Sharon practically skipped outside, dragging Cam behind her, ready to be done for the day; she'd had enough of Jackson for today and she wanted to sit at Carly's house and do homework and talk everything out with Sab and Connor. But as she approached Carly, she noticed the cheeky grin and was suspicious, especially when Carly linked arms with her.

"Why are you smiling like that? And why aren't we heading to the truck?" Sharon asked, eyes narrowing at her best friend.

"Yea, what's up Carly?" Cam asked as well.

"I've decided that we're going to start showing some school spirit, so we're watching lacrosse practice! Isn't this exciting?" Carly told her, Ran clapping her hands to support the idea.

"Um, you do know I hate lacrosse right?" Cam grumbled.

"Yea… You don't have to come. I just figured it would be nice to show some interest in our sports team and they are the ones practicing right now."

"No! I'm ready to just go home, I have homework you know, plus Cam is of course going to come anyways… Don't make him sit through it."

"So do I, we'll still have time after practice, look at Ran, she totally wants to go," Carly countered. "Plus, Cam knows he can leave, he's already weighed the pros and cons of his choices."

"Connor and Sabastian are tired," she tried next.

"No we aren't! I want to see lacrosse too!" Connor cried out, wanting to see how the sport was played.

"Oh God, the Weres are in on it too," Cam whined.

Carly looked at Cam, "Don't whine, you aren't good at it- it's unbecoming."

"Uh, uh, I don't feel good, I might faint," Sharon started, going purposefully weak in the knees.

Carly just held on tighter, "Don't make me carry you there because I will, and you'll just be embarrassed. You know I won't care, I'll totally do it."

Sharon stood back up straight, knowing she wasn't lying, so instead she just sighed, "Okay fine, I won't make you carry me, that'd be all bad. Why are we doing this anyways, what changed? You've never cared before…"

Carly just flashed a grin, continuing to drag her to the field, "Like I said, school spirit."

"Oh. My. God. It's because of a boy isn't it!"

Carly shrugged, "Technically yea he's a boy, but it's just Matt, my Physics partner. He's been bothering me all year to come watch practice, to you know show support. He got Ran interested in it when we were in Physics today and so I finally caved- I couldn't say no to her cute little face, and because you're my best friend, you're coming with me. Besides Connor and Sabastian look excited too, don't be lame."

"And I'm just getting pulled along too, great…"

Carly rolled her eyes, "What did I say about whining Campbell?"

Sharon pouted, this sounded so boring, "Fine, I'll go but I'm not driving for 2 whole weeks!"

Carly paused for a second, pondering if that was acceptable. Lately Carly had managed to talk Sharon into driving them both to school in the truck; it had taken forever for her to agree but she eventually caved. Carly had promised Sharon's mom that she'd make Sharon drive more to get experience, and she seemed way more eager to drive with Carly than her mom. But getting Sharon to finally notice Matt was also important to Carly, so she finally agreed.

"Deal, I won't make you drive to school for two weeks. Don't you like driving my loud truck? Her feelings are going to be hurt."

"I love the truck, just not driving it, driving sucks! And I still can't believe Mom convinced you to do her bidding, making me drive the truck to school. And you turned 'Get her some experience' into 'let's make Sharon drive every morning,' so lame." Sharon complained, but she smiled at her friend regardless. Carly was just looking out for her, and at least this way, Mom didn't drag her out of the house on the weekend to practice.

Carly giggled, she knew that Sharon hated driving, but it really would do her good to have the extra experience now that she had gotten her permit. As she looked down at her friend she felt satisfied that she had won this round, so Carly continued to the field, practically skipping as she towed her friends along. By the time they got there (thanks to Sharon dragging her feet the whole way) the boys were all out on the field doing their warm-ups. Carly finally let go of Sharon's arm, knowing that she couldn't run away now that they were here; she looked over at the bleachers, hoping to sit there but she saw a few other girls already occupying it. So they continued to stand along the sidelines, Carly didn't want Sharon to feel obligated to make conversation.

The group watched as the players all lined up, Sabastian and Connor were both wagging their tails, they had never seen a sport like this before but it looked like fun. They watched as the boys casually passed a small ball back and forth, catching it easily in their netted sticks. Connor decided he was going to have Mom look up some details on the sport so they'd learn more, then they could play it at home maybe.

Ran on the other hand wasn't watching the players; instead she was looking over at all the Weres sitting on the bleachers. She had seen a few of them in her classes today, she recognized the small Beta in the dress. She didn't know any of their names though, Carly hadn't taken the time to talk with any other Were Owners. But she hoped Carly would say something so she'd be able to make some more friends! She loved Connor and Sabastian, but the other wolves looked really interesting, and there were so many of them. Carly seemed very friendly, so it shouldn't be hard for her to make friends with them right? Although maybe Sharon didn't like them, or maybe they were bullies, Ran would have to ask about it later. But then she remembered that Carly owed them a story.

Ran tapped Carly's cheek, bringing her hands together in a circular motion, asking for the story.

"Oh yea, thanks for reminding me Ran, we still need to tell them the story about Jackson and why he's afraid of me," Carly said, smiling at her Were.

Sharon giggled, "That is a good story, it still makes me smile."

Carly agreed, "The look on his face, oh, I'll never forget that. So, Sharon came up to me after school one day, completely upset and ready to just go home, and I just _knew_ it was Jackson's fault, and I had had enough! So I grabbed her hand and marched out here to the field and yelled at him."

"Yelled at him? You also scared the crap out of him," Sharon said, covering her mouth as she laughed. "And don't forget, you had to fight Cam for the right to be the one to knock him down."

"Boy did I! So I was all like Whittemore, what the hell is your problem, you leave my friend alone, and he was trying to act all brave and was like 'what are you going to do freak?'" Carly imitated, deepening her voice.

Sharon cut in, changing the pitch of her voice to sound more like Carly, "'I'll curse you Whittemore.' And I kid you not, his face went whiter than a sheet."

"He was so scared. But he still tried to call my bluff, so you know what I did?"

"What, what?" Connor and Sab asked, eager to hear about what had happened.

"This crazy girl bit her hand and started bleeding, she waved her hand in his face and started speaking in Latin, it was great," Sharon revealed, wide grin on her face.

"The jerk went running for the coach, like he needed an adult, he couldn't even take me on himself, what a wimp," Carly concluded, high-fiving Sharon for the memory.

Cam smiled, "It was rather spectacular."

The Weres were yipping with delight, they hadn't thought much of Jackson when they had to deal with him in class, and he really seemed mean to his Were, so he deserved a good scare!

As practice carried on, Carly kept trying to get Matt's attention, finally giving him a quick wave as he looked their way, very subtly nodding her head in Sharon's direction. Matt eagerly waved back, smiling to himself when he saw Sharon, Carly really did bring her. Now that he knew she was there, he kept looking over at them from the corner of his eyes. He even jogged by once, pretending to get a drink of water from his bag, and as he passed, Sharon recognized him, her jaw dropping.

"Hey, that's the kid from Spanish class, number 8. He's the one I almost held hands with, oh God."

"Matt? He's in Spanish with you? And sits next to you? See, maybe coming to practice won't be so bad, you know one of the players now."

"He's your partner? Are you serious? Of all the rotten luck," Cam cursed, wrapping his arm around Sharon as if he could shield her from the players.

"What are you talking about Carly? This is awful, he's seen me, and he's probably thinking 'oh God, it's her, what if she tried to grab my hand again' or something like that."

"Oh come on, it's not like you broken any of his fingers, it wasn't even on purpose, calm down," Carly mumbled, shaking her head at Sharon's antics.

Luckily Matt heard none of this as he continued to walk by, he was too busy trying to hype himself up to talk to her after practice was over. This of course meant he wasn't really paying attention to the drills, and as a result, he dropped the ball a few times. His fumbles only increased once he looked over and saw that boy with his arm around her… Carly had _not_ mentioned a boyfriend. Surely she would have thought to say Sharon had a boyfriend after all this time, right? After his fifth fumble, Jackson came running over to him, getting in his face, tired of his lack of dedication.

"Daehler, what's wrong with you today? If this keeps up, I'm going to make sure Coach benches you! Got it! Don't drop anymore passes," he yelled into Matt's helmet.

"Yea, got it Captain," he said, rolling his eyes.

The yelling attracted Sharon's attention (as well as Cam's, who laughed), and she realized that she hated how he felt he could boss everyone around. She brought her hands up to her mouth and yelled out his name to get his attention.

"Hey Whittemore, why don't you worry about your own skills instead of harping on everyone else, you aren't as great as you think you are!"

Carly doubled over with laughter (luckily Ran had been holding on) as Jackson's head whipped around, looking for the culprit; his eyes narrowed dangerously as he spotted Sharon and Carly on the edge of the field. He looked between them and Matt, instantly realizing why he'd been fumbling so many passes.

"Do you have a crush on the loser Freshman Daehler? God, could you get any more pathetic?" Jackson snarled, shoving past him and making his way over to them.

Carly crossed her arms over her chest and bared her teeth at him, daring him to come any closer and Cam stepped forward dangerously. But he stopped moving, instead pointing at the lot of them and then slid his thumb across his throat.

"Whittemore, what are you doing, back in line!" Finstock suddenly yelled, startling them all.

Sharon frowned, wondering just what Jackson might do to get back at her, and she stood closer to her friends, just in case. But nothing else came from him, no 'missed passes' came flying by their heads, no dirty comments were thrown their way, so Sharon figured he was probably just trying to act tough in front of the guys.

They continued to watch for a bit, and Matt was trying hard to keep his eyes on the ball so he didn't get benched, but every time he was defending, he'd look over at the girls. He was sure that Sharon had recognized him, he saw her face turn red as he ran by, and not doubt she was thinking about what happened in class. And every time he looked over, that boy was leaning on her, he seemed really possessive When Coach dismissed them for a water break, he headed over to Carly, figured he'd take the chance to say hi, it was the least he could do, boyfriend or no.

"Is it over, can it be over now? I have this _huge_ bio test to study for. It's worth so much, I can't fail!" Sharon said, watching the players disperse.

"No, it's not over, but we can leave soon if you want. I'll help you study, you know that. Let's just say hi to Matt first, he's coming over," Carly promised, waving as her friend came up. Both of them ignored Cam's angry groan at the mention of saying hi to one of them.

Matt pulled off his helmet, hoping his hair wasn't completely plastered to his head, "Hi, thanks for sticking up for me, although now you might be on his bad side. I'm surprised you came, did Carly bring you along?"

Sharon snorted and immediately covered her face, "I've been on Jackson's bad side, I'm just a dumb Freshman to him. And yea, she didn't give me a choice."

"Yes, she's a poor, poor soul that is being forced out into the sunlight, I figured it would be nice if we both came to support the team. And then Cam here decided to join us," Carly explained, even though Matt knew the truth.

Matt looked at Sharon, "I didn't know you were a Freshman, aren't Freshman not allowed to drive their own car?"

"There is a lot you don't know about her Jock," Cam warned.

"That's because Carly here makes me drive, that's her truck by the way, not mine. I only have a permit, and she wants me to build up experience," Sharon explained, hands fidgeting as she noticed him staring at her.

"Oh, that makes sense, I just assumed you were a Sophomore. I'm glad you decided to come, I know I've been bothering Carly about it for awhile, but it sounds like you've got a test to study for? You probably shouldn't keep her out too late Lee," Matt joked, not wanting Sharon to fail because of him. But he was more than happy she came, maybe they'd decide it wasn't so bad and return tomorrow. Now if only this Cam guy would stay away, he seemed like a huge downer, but Sharon probably wouldn't come without her boyfriend.

"See, even he agrees, let's go study," Sharon said, looking at him thankfully, at least he understood how important studying was. She even managed to smile at him, just for a moment before grabbing Carly's arm and attempting to drag the taller girl away.

"Bye Matt, see you tomorrow!" Carly called over her shoulder, but both girls waved at him, which caused him to smile. But then Cam threw his arm over Sharon again and sent a death glare over his shoulder, looking Matt right in the eyes. Yea, definitely possessive… what was Carly thinking?

As the girls walked by the bleachers, they over heard a couple of the boys talking with all the Weres.

"Aww, that sucks that you're bored Derek, I don't know what to do about that though, we have practice every day after school now that it's lacrosse season."

"It wouldn't be so boring if we got to play too" a male voice called out.

"Well, I don't know about that, but I'll try to talk to Coach about that okay? Practice is almost over, so you won't have to be here much longer, I promise."

Carly tried not to laugh at Stiles's exasperated tone, it really sounded like he had no idea what to do with the Weres. But it made sense that they were bored, just sitting on the bleachers for a few hours straight. The twins heard his promise though, and high-fived each other, if that boy talked Coach into letting Weres play, they could maybe be on the team. Ran smiled at the boys as they heard this, knowing they'd try their hardest to get to play. A look passed between the three of them, they needed to come up with a plan to convince Mom into coming back tomorrow.

* * *

><p>AN: The Weres will be playing lacrosse in this story as well, just in a slightly different way than before. Sharon came up with the new idea and we both thought it was really adorable, so we changed it up for this story. Also notice how Jackson is being even more of an ass in this story? Yea, he's going to be a lot meaner here, at least for awhile.


	4. Meeting New Weres

*Tuesday*

Sharon walked into Shop class, telling herself to go and get some masks and goggles for her boys the next time they went out, safety first after all (it was only plastered all over the walls of the classroom). As she took her regular spot, she heard her wolves chittering to each other, so she looked down at her shoulder, wondering what was up. Connor was pointing excitedly over to the workstation behind her, nudging his brother's side.

"What are you two doing over there?" Sharon asked.

"Mom, look, that boy has Weres today, twins, just like us, look, look," Connor exclaimed.

Immensely curious, Sharon turned her head further, catching a glimpse out of the corner of her eye, and sure enough the guy behind her had a set of Weres walking around on his desk.

"Do you know him Mommy?" Sabastian asked, peering up at her face.

"Kinda, his name is Danny, he's on the lacrosse team, but I've never really talked to him, he's friends with Jackson."

Sabastian's ears drooped, if he was friends with Jackson that meant he was probably mean, so they wouldn't get to know the new Weres. But then they heard one of the twins talking to Danny, asking about Sharon and the boys.

"Hey, hey, hey, Danny, who's that? She has twins too, do you know her, let's go see them," one of them called out, pulling on Danny's fingers.

Danny sighed, these little guys were really bossy, but they were cute and he easily caved in, scooping them up and heading over to Sharon's work station.

"Hey there, sorry to interrupt but my little guys wanted to meet you and your Weres, is that okay?" Danny asked, friendly smile on his face.

Sharon nodded her head, "They were curious too, so I guess it's inevitable."

She placed her two boys on the wooden surface and watched as they slowly walked towards Danny. When Danny put his two minis down, the practically ran over to meet the other set of twins. Sabastian squeaked a little, surprised by their sudden movements but giggled as they were sniffing him all over.

"You're an Omega? You don't have an Alpha? Why not?" one of them asked, determined look on his face.

Danny poked the wolf in the back of the head, "Aiden, that's rude, don't bombard someone with all those questions."

"Sorry Danny, but I'm curious."

His brother leaned in towards Connor and Sabastian, "Forgive him, he's a little bossy sometimes. My name is Ethan, what are your names?"

Connor smiled, "I'm Connor, and this is Sabastian, we're easy to tell apart. How does Mister Danny remember who is who?"

All four of them looked at Danny, eyes wide and innocent, which made Sharon laugh.

"Well, I've only had you one night, but already I can see that Aiden kinda has the crew cut with the spiked-up front and Ethan almost has a fauxhawk going. But personality-wise, you two are very different."

"You picked them up last night?" Sharon asked, cutting in.

Danny nodded his head, "After seeing everyone with some yesterday, I decided I had to get two, since I know they feel better in a pack. And these two were still there, just waiting for me, so I scooped them up. When did you buy yours?"

"I didn't buy them, I found them in my house, maybe about 2 weeks ago; they'd been abandoned, but I took them in and watched them really flourish. Ran just loves them to bits, she's like a big sister to them, even if they don't like to be babied," Sharon explained.

Danny nodded, understand, "Ran is your friend's Were pet, the uh, one with the curses?"

Sharon burst out laughing, "Yea, that's Carly."

"Jackson has gotten so much crap for that day, he's forbidden anyone from mentioning it, but we all still do. Don't tell him I said that though," Danny said, laughing along with her.

"Please, it's not like Jackson and I talk, unless insulting each other counts," Sharon laughed, rolling her eyes.

Danny looked away, remembering just how mean Jackson was to her, "Sorry about all that, I may be his friend, but I can still see how big of a jerk he is. Anyways, I guess I should get back to my project, Stiles has this crazy idea that he wants me to try for the Weres."

"Oh, what's that? Maybe I can help?" Sharon offered earnestly, Danny was so much nicer than Jackson, so she wasn't going to hold the friendship against him.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed to bring it up, "Well, he pointed out that the Weres could really use some kind of chair for when they go to the bathroom."

"Pottyseat? Like the one Ran and us have?" Sabastian commented, looking up at his Mom.

"Yea, that's what it sounds like. I take it you don't want to have to shell out the money for one at the stores?" Sharon asked.

"They have them at stores? I didn't look, but I guess Stiles felt it might be easy to make it for free, they sound like they might be expensive?"

"It's not the most expensive item out there, but for what it is, it's over priced. So I made one for Ran when Carly got her in December, and then another for when I found these two a few weeks later. I can show you my sketches of it, if you want."

Danny smiled, "That would be amazing, you'd be my new class friend! Although that wouldn't be hard, Greenburg kinda sucks in here. I really have no idea where to start so anything you can give me would be great."

Sharon nodded her head, happy to have someone to talk to in class now; she reached into her workshop folder and pulled out the old sketches. The two of them leaned over the sketches, Danny quickly getting the idea and even pointing out a few new ideas that they can implement. It wasn't long before they started shaping some small pieces of wood while the four Weres chased each other around the desk.

*Third Period English*

Ran was sitting up on the front desk, watching as Miss McCurdy graded homework; this was super boring, but it was test day and she didn't want anyone to accuse Carly of cheating so Ran got stuck up here. But at least Miss McCurdy was nice, she was even playing with her tail as she graded their homework, and Ran was able to see Carly's final score. 100%, just like she had expected, they were reading through Kindred right now, and Carly was really intrigued by the story. So of course she did all the homework and went into extreme detail. As Ran looked around the classroom, she saw Carly looking up at her, giving the smallest of waves as soon as the mini made eye contact. She was reclining back in her chair, meaning she was done with the test and was now very bored.

"Miss McCurdy?" Ran started, steeling herself to have a full conversation with an adult, and not have Carly there to interpret.

"Yes?"

"Um, Carly is done with the test," Ran began, speaking very slowly. "Can I sit with her now?"

Miss McCurdy looked up at the clock, there was still 25 minutes left in the period and she was already done? She supposed she couldn't penalize her best student any longer so she waved Carly up to the desk.

"As much fun as it is to have Ran up here, I'll let you take her back, but you have to drop you test off up here so no one can say you are cheating. And you and Ran can Sign so you don't disturb the others until class is over."

"Thanks Miss McCurdy! Has anyone told you lately that you are awesome?" Carly whispered excitedly. She scrambled to grab her test and give it to her teacher, scooping Ran up at the same time.

"Thank you," Ran sang out, waving to her as the pair sat back down. They spent the rest of the period Signing to each other, mostly about Matt and Sharon, and what they were going to do about it.

*Lunch*

"Hey Sharon, Cam, how has your day been?" Carly called out as her friends joined her in the halls.

"Not bad, I kinda made a friend in Shop class, so that's good right?"

"Oh, with who?" Cam asked..

"Danny, on the lacrosse team," Sharon revealed.

Carly nodded, "Danny's nice, which is weird considering his best friend is Jackson, what happened in 1st period?"

Cam nodded in approval, "I like Danny, he's a good guy."

As the group sat down outside and Sharon started to explain, Ran called the boys over to her. She pulled them away from the girls a bit, gathering them in a tight circle, and speaking in hushed tones.

"Guys, guess what? Carly and I had to promise not to tell Sharon, but I figured out a loophole where I can tell you. Matt has a major crush on Sharon, that's why we all went to practice yesterday."

Sabastian's eyes went wide, "That's the boy that sits next to her in Spanish right?"

"Yea, and he sits with Carly in Physics _and_ math, I've only talked with him a little bit but he seems real nice. What do you two think?"

Connor poked his head up to look at the humans, "He seems pretty nice, and Mom should be happy with someone, right Sab?"

His brother nodded his head, "I agree, even though he surprised me the other day, he seems nice. And if you and Carly think so, he has to be a good guy. What about Cam?"

"So what should we do about it? Matt is too shy to say anything really, and so is Sharon I think," Ran told them, wondering if they'd have any ideas. "I hope maybe Cam will get to know him and like him too."

"Leave it to us, we pass Matt in the hallway going to History, we can ask Mom if we can check out his class instead," Connor proposed, totally on board with Ran.

"But what if Mommy doesn't let us go?" Sabastian voiced, feeling slightly anxious at being away from her.

Connor pulled his brother into a tight hug, "I'll be there with you, he won't kidnap us, and we'll tell Mom that we want to work on our anxiety and that we since we don't see Carly, we can go with Matt instead."

"That sounds good," Ran said, nodding her head.

If the boys started to trust Matt more, Sharon would end up getting closer to him as well, and that was the important part. As Sharon ended her story about Shop class, Ran herded the boys back towards the center of the table, looking innocent. Ran sat down and started eating some chips, feeling happy about the potential series of events.

A few minutes before lunch was over, Carly's phone went off and she glanced at it; seeing that it was from Matt she hurried and opened it: _Why didn't you tell me Sharon had a boyfriend? Cam was all over her, what were you thinking?"_

"Oh my God," Carly suddenly burst out laughing, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. It did nothing to muffle her laughs though, Matt was absolutely ridiculous! She sent him back a quick text, telling him they'd talk about it later. When she looked up she saw that both of her friends were looking at her with wide eyes.

"Care to share?" Cam asked.

"Sorry, text from Matt, he's being a derp."

"When isn't he a derp?" Cam shot back.

*Fourth Period Biology*

Sabastian and Connor both gave Sharon a hug for good luck before she dropped them off on the teacher's desk, alongside Ethan, Aidan, and Jackson's new Were. Sharon was ignoring everyone around her, mentally going over all the vocabulary in her head and running through the Punnett's Square possibilities. After they left practice last night, Carly spent a lot of time drilling Sharon on the vocabulary and then having her write out all the types of dominant and recessive alleles they'd gone over in class. When Mr. Hill handed her the test, she wrote her name down and peeked at the first question: Describe the difference between a Monohybrid cross and a Dihybrid cross. Sharon smiled, she actually remembered this, Carly would be proud.

Up on the desk, Sabastian and Connor were sitting quietly, not wanting to get into any trouble, although Ethan came over to say hi to them. On the other side of the desk, they could hear Aiden and the other wolf pointing out certain students, making fun of their appearance.

"Hey Ethan, who's that with Aiden?" Connor asked.

"That's Jackson's new Were, his name is Deucalion, he's a no nonsense kind of Alpha, Aiden seems to worship him. As you can see, they have similar personalities."

Sabastian leaned into his brother, "I don't like him, he seems really scary."

Ethan shrugged, "He's… different to say the least. And he's definitely not the friendliest, I'd stay away from him."

"Why?" Connor asked, confused.

"Well, Aiden likes him, and he's cool towards me, but I think he might try to bully you two. He tried to bully me and Aiden at the pet store, but over time, we figured out a sort of truce. He's not nice to new Weres, and if he thinks you're weak, he wants nothing to do with you."

Connor stood up, "We aren't weak!"

Ethan clamped his hands down over Connor's mouth, "Shhhh, trust me, you don't want him to think you're challenging him. I don't mean to insult you, either of you, but Deuc is not a wolf you want to mess with. He's an Alpha, and a very experienced Alpha at that, look at his age difference, can't you feel the aura that's around him?"

Sabastian and Connor both looked over, realizing that Ethan was totally right. Connor's ears slumped in a silent apology and Ethan patted his back.

"Like I said, it's better for you to stay away from him, he's a bully. I'm sure you could ask any of the other Weres about him that were at the pet store with us, they'll remember him."

Connor looked at his brother, they didn't really know any of the other Weres, but maybe they could ask Ran if she's heard anything. They quickly changed the subject, Sabastian bringing up Shop class (since it was his favorite), and they came up with ideas on what they could build in there.

*Fourth Period Physics*

Matt sat down next to Carly, frantic look on his face, which Carly immediately asked about. Matt gave her a look that said it had everything to do with that text he'd sent minutes ago; although he did tell her he was happy to see her at practice the other day. He was also still laughing at Sharon's comment towards Jackson, it had really put a damper on his mood.

"I think she had a good time, even if we left early. But she's really nervous about that test, but I'm sure she'll pass, we spent hours going over it all. And then hopefully she'll be willing to go again today, it's actually pretty fun."

Matt looked at her, "I really don't think her boyfriend would like to go again, he really seemed like he wasn't having fun. Sharon seemed really stressed too, but I'm sure that was because of the test… I don't think they'll come today."

Carly couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Right, you're wrong about that. Besides Cam was full of insightful comments about the players, really kept our spirits up while we watched; I just might drag them to the game this weekend."

Matt clutched his heart, "What? You, go to a game? Never in your three years have you gone to a game, as least that's what you kept telling me. And Cam wasn't completely miserable the whole time? Shocking."

Carly shrugged, "Yea I know, but I never had a reason to go before. I mean sure, I've made friends with a lot of people, and some of them have been lacrosse players, but I never felt like it would matter if I went. But you have really been wanting to me go, and not just because of Sharon," she teased before turning serious. "I feel like if I go, I'll actually have someone to support you know? All the other years it was more of, would they look for me in the crowd? Probably not since all the pretty girls were going. And if Sharon wants to go, I'm not leaving her to sit by herself!"

"You are such a softy Lee, one just has to chip away at that dark, evil, scary exterior," Matt chuckled.

"Maybe I should start doing my spiked ponytail again, if you want to see evil and scary. Too bad you weren't around my Freshman year," Carly snorted.

Ran listened carefully as the humans bantered, happy that Carly was just as encouraging as the twins were. But not only that, she also cared for Matt, he was a good friend to her, and that meant he was going to become a good friend to Ran and that made her smile. But did he really think Cam and Sharon were dating? And why didn't Carly tell him that they weren't? Clearly she was having fun at his expense here, that was kinda rude. But Ran did have to admit to herself, it was a little funny.

*Fifth Period Algebra 2*

Once Physics was over, Matt and Carly were heading downstairs to math class, still arguing about Cam, Sharon, and lacrosse. As they came to the stairway, they saw Cam and Sharon standing there talking as well; Carly waved to them and Matt wilted.

"And here is the lovely couple now," he said, putting on a smile.

Carly burst out laughing once more while Cam and Sharon both just tilted their head, wondering what Matt was talking about. Meanwhile Matt was staring at Carly like she'd grown another head.

"Sor-sorry, God Matt, you're hilarious," Carly choked out. "We gotta go, bye guys." Carly said, waving to her two friends and pulling Matt down to the first floor.

"What the hell was that?" Cam asked.

Sharon shook her head, "I have no idea…"

By the time they made it to the classroom, Carly had sobered up and they were both wondering what Mrs. Duff might say to them today about the Were pets. But they were disappointed, Mrs. Duff politely ignored Ran and Carly, not sparing them a glance as they walked in. Ran shrugged, it didn't hurt her feelings at all, who cared what some mean teacher thought?

But when the other boy, Stiles walked into class, Ran deflated completely, he was all alone. She let out a quiet whimper, which Carly picked up on, worried about her pet.

"What's up Ran?"

She pointed to Stiles and Signed 'no wolf' with a sad face, she was hoping to get to know his Weres better. Carly looked over at him, debating if she should ask him what had happened to them, what if he was upset about it? But Ran was looking really worried about it so she quickly tapped him on the shoulder, wanting to ask before the final bell rang.

"Hey, didn't you have Weres with you the other day? What happened, are they alright?"

Stiles jumped when she tapped him, but he quickly assured her they were fine, "They are across the hall with Scott. He's in Algebra 2 with Mrs. Brane and she's a lot nicer. So I figured Derek and Cora could learn from her; I wouldn't let them come back here every day just to be bullied."

Ran sagged down to the desk with relief, Signing to Stiles while Carly translated.

"I was hoping to meet them, but if they aren't comfortable in this class, it's better that they don't come. I'm happy they are okay."

Stiles smiled down at the wolf, "Aw, I didn't mean to worry you, but I'm sure Cora would be happy to meet you one day, maybe we could all get together and hang out."

Ran clapped her hands, Signing some more, "I love to meet new wolves, I'm friendly just like Mom, even if I don't talk much."

Stiles laughed lightly, secretly very intrigued by Ran and her disposition to silence but before he could say anymore, the final bell rang and Mrs. Duff stood up. The rest of the class period went by quietly, occasionally Stiles would look over and catch Ran signing things to Carly and suddenly he wanted to learn too.

*Sixth Period History*

As Carly made her way to Mr. Westover's class, Connor started waving frantically, calling out Matt's name to get his attention. Sharon turned to look, wondering how the wolf had spotted him in the crowded hallway, but she supposed he was one of the taller students. Matt had heard his name and walked closer, smile on his face.

"Oh God, why is he coming over," Cam whispered, having just appeared behind Sharon. He always saw he in between classes if he could help it, to make sure stuff like this didn't happen.

"Hey there, Connor?" Matt asked, unsure of their names still.

"Yup, that's me, I was hoping we could ask you a favor?"

Sharon's eyebrows shot up, what favor did they want to ask him?

Connor started bouncing from foot to foot, suddenly really nervous that his plan might fail, but he took a deep breath and plowed ahead. "Could we maybe go to class with you next?"

"What, Connor, why are you asking that?" Sharon asked, eyes wide.

"Wha?" Cam mouthed, completely confused as to why the twins would want to spend any time with this doofus.

"W-we want to work on our anxiety Mommy, please? Matt is the only other person here that we kinda know…" Sabastian started, holding his tail.

"And if we ask Carly, it won't be the same, since we're comfortable around her now. Please? It will only be for one class," Connor finished, looking hopeful.

"Hey, what about me, I'd be more than happy to take you to French class with me," Cam offered immediately.

"But we know you too Cam, just like Carly. It wouldn't work as well," Connor amended.

Matt gave Sharon his most charming smile, "I really wouldn't mind, I'm sure Mrs. Schmidt would love to see them."

"I don't know… Wait, Mrs. Schmidt? Mr. Schmidt, our Spanish teacher, is married?"

Matt laughed and nodded his head, "Yea, and they are totally different too. So what do you think? Can they come with me?"

"Please for the love of God say no, Sharon, you don't know him!"

Matt held his hands out, ready to accept the Weres the moment she said yes, he didn't even glare at Cam; Sharon bit her lip, unsure if this was a good idea, but then the warning bell rang and Sharon had to make a choice.

"Fine, but I swear, I will hurt you so bad if they get hurt in any way, and once I'm done with you, I'll sic Carly on you too!" Sharon threatened.

"That's not even taking into account Carly will have to dig up your body Jock!" Cam tacked on dangerously.

Their threats fell flat though as Sabastian and Connor leapt into his heads, both yelling out a thanks as they landed, sending her 'mwahs' with their hands. Sharon sighed, already worried about her boys but she couldn't help but smile. They were really coming out of their shell, maybe Carly was started to rub off on them too, which was a good thing. Before she could change her mind, she turned and smiled at Cam.

"They'll be fine, right?" she asked.

"They better be!" was all Cam responded with.

Sharon nodded her head in agreement and went into her class; it was going to be a long period without her two buddies with her. As she was pulling out all of her notes, she jumped when Jackson slammed his book down on the desk next to her, a dirty look on his face. She returned the rude face back at him before turning back to the front, waiting for Mr. Westover to start teaching. The first few minutes went by just fine, Mr. Westover going into detail about the next emperor of the Qi Dynasty; Sharon had put Jackson out of her mind completely. That is until he suddenly reached over and fiercely grabbed her wrist.

Sharon jumped from the sudden contact, eyes wide as she looked over at the Sophomore; he gave her a nasty grin and squeezed her wrist, fingers digging into the tender flesh on the inside of her arm. She winced in pain, tugging on her arm to try and free herself from his grasp, but he only held on tighter. Then, Jackson suddenly pressed down with his thumb and middle finger, rotating his hand slightly; he was using enough force to grind her bones past each other, causing her to whimper in pain. Then just like that he let go, wiping his hand on his jeans like she was dirty and resumed taking notes.

Sharon cradled her injured arm to her chest, praying that tears didn't fall down her cheeks; she didn't want the teacher to see her crying during class. She did her best to continue to take notes, the pain in her wrist was distracting her; she found the smallest positive that at least she was left-handed, so she'd still be able to write. The dull throbbing stayed with her all class, and when she looked down, there were dark finger shaped bruises already showing; she silently cursed Jackson.

*After School*

As soon as the bell rang, Sharon gathered her things and tried to escape the classroom, but Jackson was right behind her. When they were out in the hallway, Jackson roughly pushed past her, clipping her with his elbow.

"That was for practice yesterday loser," he whispered, venom in his eyes.

"What the hell was that Sharon?" Cam asked, having been waiting in the hall for her.

Sharon stood there in the middle of the hall, taking deep breaths to try and compose herself, ignoring the crowd of students moving around her, ignoring Cam's question. Before she had completely calmed down, Matt appeared in front of her, all smiles.

"Class went great, Mrs. Schmidt loved them, just like I thought. And they are still in perfect condition, just like before," Matt started, petting the wolves on his shoulder. But then they whined and Matt looked down at Sharon, seeing the pained look on her face. "Hey, you okay?"

"Aren't you the trained observer," Cam snarked, wrapping his arm around Sharon and holding her close. No way was Jock going to find out what was wrong before he did. This had Jackson's stink all over it.

"Huh, oh yea I'm fine, just had a long day is all. I'm glad they had fun," Sharon said, smiling genuinely as she saw her boys again. She held out her hands for them to jump onto, realizing too late that her new bruises were on full display.

"What happened to your arm Sharon? Are you okay, that looks painful," Matt asked.

Cam turned Sharon to face him and tried to get a better look at her wrist, "Sharon, tell me, right now. We don't keep secrets remember."

Sharon tried to cuddle her wolves to her chest and blow it off, not wanting anymore trouble, "It's nothing, I ran into the door handle, I'll be fine."

But Matt didn't believe her, especially when Sabastian whimpered and Connor gave her an accusatory look. Cam picked up on their instincts and gently pulled at her forearm, so he could get a better look at the marks.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say those look an awful lot like finger marks. You don't get those from a handle," Cam accused.

"Who is in History with you that would do this?" Matt asked.

Sharon just shrugged and pulled her arm away, "It's nothing, don't worry about it okay? Thanks for letting the boys sit with you in class today, I know it meant a lot to them."

Matt looked down at the minis, they were both examining her wrist; Sab was gently licking it, trying to make it better and Connor was sniffing it, letting out a low growl. Sharon mentally facepalmed, of course the twins would figure out what had happened.

Connor looked up at the boys, eyes full of anger, "It was Jackson!"

"Connor, no, don't… it's nothing, just leave it be, okay?" Sharon pleaded, she'd feel awful if Cam or Matt did something to get into trouble.

Matt didn't say anything, but his eyes had a storm brewing behind them; he turned and started marching down to the stairwell. Sharon tried to reach out and stop him but Cam stopped her.

"We're going to handle this," he said, placing his hand on her back and gently steering her to the front of the school. Sharon was too ashamed to protest, wondering if the boys thought she was weak, and she let herself be led to Carly; she didn't spare a thought to the amount of anger she'd seen in Matt's eyes.

When they got outside, Carly immediately knew something was up, she could tell by the looks on their faces. Ran puffed up, sensing the twins' anguish from afar; she was seeing red! Someone hurt them and she'd chew their ears off if she ever found out who did it. Carly didn't even ask for an explanation, she just pulled Sharon into a hug and threw a glance at the boys, expecting one immediately.

"Jackson is being a bully again apparently," was all Matt offered, but it was enough. Cam was standing next to them, hands clenched and jaw tight. Carly could tell he was too upset to even speak right now.

"You want to go home Sharon?" Carly asked, rubbing small circles into the younger girl's back.

But Sharon shook her head and pulled away, "I'm not going to let him push me around, Sab and Connor both wanted to see practice today so we're going to watch practice, at least for a little bit."

"Sharon-" Cam started, but the younger girl just shook her head.

Carly and Matt both smiled at her strength, glad that she wasn't going to be intimidated by him. So Carly threw her arms over Sharon's shoulders and led the group to the field, Matt breaking off from the group to go change into his uniform. Since they were planning on staying for a bit, they decided to sit on the bleachers today, managing a polite wave to the other girls already there.

Ran was stomping around on Carly's lap, snarling quietly and making angry Signs to no one in particular. Connor and Sabastian were still curled up in Sharon's lap, trying to comfort her, and thank her at the same time for letting them come. Unbeknownst to Sharon, Connor had asked Matt about practice today, and he revealed that supposedly Coach was going to let the Weres play today. They weren't sure what that meant, but all three of them were pretty excited.

As the boys all came jogging out onto the field, a small group of them headed over to the bleachers; instantly all the Weres on the other side of the bleachers (except for 2 or 3) climbed up onto the jerseys and into the helmets, cheering loudly. Connor and Sabastian started wiggling all over, full of excitement; before Sharon could do anything, the boys leapt off of her lap and scrambled down to the field, immediately searching out Matt.

"Connor! Sabastian! Get back here!" Sharon yelled out, but they kept going, willfully ignoring her.

Ran let out a high whistle, making their ears ring, and the boys stopped in their tracks at the sound. As soon as they stopped, Ran jumped onto the field, sprinting towards them as fast as her wolf legs would go. When she caught up to them, she grabbed their ears, one in each hand and tried to drag them back to the bleachers.

"Ran! Stop, we're going to go play too, we have to find Matt, he'll let us play," Connor yelled out, trying to dislodge his ear from her grasp.

"Danger!" Ran shout back, letting go of them and pointing to all the cleats the players were wearing. Then she stomped her feet to get her point across.

Sabastian has the sense to look ashamed, whispering out a sorry but Connor did not, he just crossed his arms and glared at her.

"We are fine Ran, calm down. No one would step on us," he rationalized.

Ran just raised an eyebrow, giving him a one word rebuttal, "Jackson."

The twins eyes got wide at that, they instantly looked around trying to pick him out from the crowd, but instead Matt appeared right next to them crouching down.

"What are you doing out on the field, that's dangerous you know," he commented as he picked all three of them up.

Ran stuck her tongue out at them, glad that Matt was on her side, but didn't say anything else to them, just happy they were safe now. If Jackson would hurt Sharon like that, he's also hurt her brothers and she wasn't about to let that happen!

Sharon jumped up from the bleachers and met Matt on the sidelines, instantly trying to scold the boys but Matt gently interrupted.

"They really want to play, and since you aren't on the team, they'd have to ask one of us. No harm done though, see?" he said, attempting to placate her.

"Yea, Mommy we're fine, promise! Can we play, please please?" Sabastian begged, even getting down on his knees as Matt held him.

Carly came over and just laughed at the whole situation, grabbing Ran from Matt's outstretched hand, "If practices are always this eventful, I wish we would have started coming sooner!"

"Please make the pain stop," Cam cried out, knowing that now they'd have to sit here through the _whole_ thing. This stupid jock was trying to worm his way into the twins' hearts and then into Sharon's by association, the nerve!

Sharon just gave her a look that said she wasn't helping at all. But as she turned back to the boys, all three of them had the most hopeful looks on their faces. How could they be begging her for another favor already today? It really wasn't fair of them to do that, but she caved anyways, giving them all a stern look before shooing them off with the smallest of smiles on her lips.

"Look at them, they're growing up," Carly said, pretending to sniffle and wipe her eyes.

"Oh shut it, let's sit back down."

The girls sat back down as all the boys lined up, the coach giving the boys a colored net jersey to put on.

"Okay, today, we're going to practicing defense and offense all together, those of you with jerseys will be working two at a time to defend the goal. Then two without the jerseys well do your best to score. After the round, all four players well swap out, the next two from each side will go next. Once everyone has gone, we'll switch sides. GO!" Coach explained, ended it with a shrill blast from his whistle.

The girls watched as Matt first defended the goal, cheering when he managed to stop number 11 from scoring. Sharon hoped her minis were doing okay, although so far he hadn't taken any hard hits so that was fine. When they switched, Sharon was watching closely, hoping that he'd be able to score on his turn (okay so she cared and wanted him to play well, where's the harm in that?). Carly could see that her friend was anxious, and only a small part of that was because of the twins' safety; part of it had to be because of Matt. In the end she was glad that they came today, it was helping to bring Sharon out of her shell a lot more. Cam of course was sitting back against the bleachers and had his arms crossed, this was so stupid.

When it was Matt's turn to go, he groaned inwardly as he saw that Jackson run up to goal with him. Jackson easily passed Matt the ball early on, hoping to position himself closer to the goal. As they ran down the field, Stiles went to block Jackson as Scott came for Matt, but Matt was ready for this.

"Back, back," Jackson called, expecting Matt to pass the ball back, crosse ready.

Everyone always followed the captain's orders, and Matt grinned as he come up to Scott; he feinted, making like he was going to obediently pass and Scott took the bait. But instead he followed through with a spin, twirling his crosse in his hand to keep the ball in the net. Then he ran straight towards the goal, Scott scrambling to catch up. Jackson was still yelling at him to pass but Matt went to goal, flicking his wrist. He watched as the ball sailed through the air, just ghosting past Danny and going into the net.

Sabastian and Connor both started cheering, patting his face from their position inside his helmet. Matt let out a cheer too, fist-bumping Scott as they made way for the next set of players.

"Good play bro, you knew exactly how I was going to respond, very nice," Scott praised, clapping him on the back.

"Thanks, it just kinda popped into my head you know?"

"Good moves Daehler, good moves," Coach yelled out before blowing his whistle to signal the next group.

As he made his way to the back of the group, Jackson came up behind him, slamming his stick into Matt's outer thigh.

"When I say pass, I expect you to give me the ball, got it?" Jackson whispered, turning away before Matt could respond.

"You won't always be open Whittemore, and I'm not threatened by you, I don't bruise easily," he countered, challenging him.

Jackson whirled around, understanding the point he was making; he narrowed his eyes, glancing towards the girls on the sideline.

"Oh, did she rat on me then? What a narc," he sneered.

"She didn't have to narc, it easy to see you're an asshole with an attitude problem," Matt growled, pushing past the captain and the teams switched sides again.

Back on the bleachers, Carly was watching the two boys intently, wishing she could hear what they were saying, but they walked away from each other without coming to blows (besides the obvious stick check he did). Jackson was becoming a big problem and she wasn't sure what they should do about it. Luckily she didn't think Sharon noticed, she was getting into the practice, cheering whenever one of the boys scored, not really caring if she knew them or not. Carly turned to look at Cam, wondering what his thoughts were on the whole thing but Cam offered nothing, just stared at Jackson and Matt.

The rest of practice went smoothly, Matt and Jackson purposefully not partnering together again to avoid any trouble and before they knew it, Coach was blowing his whistle, letting them all go for the day. Matt jogged over to the bleachers, pulling off his helmet, Sabastian and Connor were both sweaty but smiling from ear to ear; this had been a great day.

"Mom, that was so much fun, thanks for letting us play with Matt!" Connor said, tail wagging.

"Yea, it was nice having them in my helmet, it makes me play a lot safer, and once they know the plays, they'd be able to give me quick options of what I should do. But let's go take a shower, we're really gross. I'll have them back out in a bit okay?" Matt asked, wanting to make sure it was okay.

"Yea, that's fine, although I wish I had known they'd get so dirty, I would have picked them up a spare set of clothes," she sighed.

"It's fine Mommy, we can change later," Sabastian assured her. Right now all he wanted to do was get some water and wash off his face.

Matt gave the girls a quick wave before jogging off to the locker room, taking off his gloves as he went. He asked the boys if they had fun, and what their favorite part of practice was. They were all laughing as Matt sat down on the bench, pulling out some clean clothes and setting the twins down next to his gloves.

Sabastian licked his lips as he heard to sound of water running and he jumped off of the bench, quickly heading towards the sound of the fountain.

Matt was getting dressed when Sab jumped down, so he didn't notice that he went missing, instead he continued to talk with Connor, asking him if he would like to come back to practice.

"Yea, I mean really we didn't get to play, but we got to watch from up close and it was so exciting. I'd love to come every day if Coach lets us," Connor assured him, leaning back on the wooden surface.

"Do…do you think Sharon would let you? I mean, I know she cares about you a lot and lacrosse can get dangerous, even with just practicing," Matt probed, trying to steer the conversation towards his owner. "And I'm sure Cam has better things to do."

"Mom will be fine, you'll be careful with us right? Besides Cam can always just go home, he doesn't have to stay."

Matt nodded quickly, "Of course, I'd feel awful if something happened to you, or Sabastian. I mean, I know I'm not your Owner or anything, but I'd never intentionally hurt you. Do you think Sharon knows that?"

"I'm sure she does, I think she likes you ya know? I mean, she yelled at Jackson for you," Connor blurted out, sensing that Matt was beating around the bush.

Matt blushed, realizing that the mini knew exactly what he was alluding to, "Are you sure? I mean, I really like her. But if she doesn't like me you know, I wouldn't bother her or anything. She has Cam after all I mean, it's not my place."

"Cam and Mommy are friends, but Mommy should have a boyfriend. She likes you, I'm sure, you just have to let her know you like her back, in a big way," Connor confided.

"Wait, Cam and Sharon aren't dating? I thought they were a couple!" Matt just about shrieked.

"No way, Cam is Mommy's best friend! They are close, but not dating at all. So back to what I was talking about," Connor moved on.

Matt sat for a moment and processed what the little Were had just revealed… Sharon was single! He actually had a chance! "Okay, so you said let her know in a big way? What do you mean? I don't want to mess it up, give me as much help as you can, please?" Matt said, bending down to get closer to the Were.

Connor sat up, excited that he was willing to listen, after all he did know Mom best, "Well, you know how some boys can be shy about relationships, you have to prove that you don't care if anyone knows. She likes big statements, like when Carly made her go to practice yesterday, she knows Carly has her best interests at heart, so practice must be important. So if you make a big statement out of it, she'll know you're serious about it."

"Are you sure Connor? She seems really shy, I don't know if she'd want me to ask her in front of everyone."

Connor rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Okay maybe not everyone, but at least your friends, you have friends right?"

Matt laughed, "Yes, I have friends Connor. Maybe I can ask her out tomorrow at lunch? Do you think she'll come sit with me?"

"Yea, Sab and I can help convince her, we really like you, you're nice."

Meanwhile, as Connor was giving Matt pointers, Sab had found the drinking fountain, Danny standing there with Ethan and Aiden.

"S'cuse me Danny, can I get a drink please?" he called, jumping up and down so Danny would see him.

"Oh sure, one sec," Danny said, bending down and gently grabbing the wolf.

He pressed down on the lever and held him close to the running water; Sab took a long sip and then ran his head under the cool water, sighing with relief. Then he shook himself off, getting Danny's arm all wet.

"All better little guy?" Danny asked.

"Yea, thanks Danny," Sab waved as he went back the way he came.

As he was walking, he heard the locker room door slam, a chill running down his little spine, Matt left him! His heart started to pound and he ran around the corner, praying to see his brother there but the bench was completely empty. The room started to spin as Sabastian struggled to pull in a breath, how could Matt leave him behind? And what did he do with Connor? He was completely alone now, not even his brother was with him!

"Connor!" he yelled out, tears streaming down his face, "CONNOR!"

Around the other side of the lockers, Connor had just finished giving Matt Sharon's number when they heard Sabastian scream out his name. Their eyes went wide, wondering what the hell happened to him; Matt scooped up Connor and tore around the corner, frantically searching for the wolf.

"Sabastian, where are you?" Matt called out, dropping to the floor to look under all the lockers.

He spotted tiny little shoes over on the far side of the room and called out again, crawling towards the edge of the lockers. Something was horribly wrong if he was screaming like that; Matt swore, it better not have anything to do with Jackson.

When Sabastian heard Matt call out, he perked his ears, trying to determine which way he might be. Then he heard Connor calling out his name and ran to the edge of the lockers, running smack dab into Matt's arm.

"Matt! I th-thought you l-l-left me behind!" Sabastian wailed, clinging to his arm as tears continued to fall.

"Hey, hey, come here, I'd never leave you behind!" Matt assured him, picking him up off the ground and falling back to sit on the floor. He cuddled both minis to his chest, nuzzling the top of Sabastian's head with his nose.

"I h-heard the door slam and I thought it was you leaving. I c-came around the corner and you we-were gone! Where did you go?"

Connor hugged his brother close, "We didn't go anywhere, we sat at the bench the whole time. I promise we did."

Sabastian looked around, hastily wiping his eyes, from their spot on the floor, he could see Matt's bag on the floor, a row over. He collapsed against his brother, realizing what happened.

"I must have turned the wrong way after getting a drink, I could have sworn you were on these benches, and when I didn't see you…"

"I'm sorry buddy, I should have gone with you to get a drink, this is a big locker room for someone your size. Come on, let's go back over there and dry you off a bit okay?" Matt suggested, standing up.

He set them both down on the same bench as before, pulling out a towel from his locker and running over Sabastian's head. Now that he was dry and no longer crying, Matt packed up his gear and let them climb up to his shoulder.

"Ready to go back to Sharon?" he asked.

Both wolves nodded, Connor sitting there rubbing his brother's back, quietly assuring him that he would never have let Matt leave him behind. As they approached the girls, Carly was deep in conversation with Cam. As Matt walked past, she gave him a thumbs-up and a wave, he did good today.

When the boys got closer, Sharon heard Sabastian hiccupping and noticed his eyes were red. She narrowed her eyes at Matt, he did something to upset her boys! Matt's eyes grew wide as he saw her come stomping over to him, a deadly glare on her face.

"What did you do? Why is Sabastian crying?" she demanded, grabbing a fistful of his collar and forcing him to bend down to her level.

"No, Mom, it's okay, I promise, he didn't do anything," Connor spoke up, wobbling slightly at the change of shoulder angle.

"Like hell he didn't," Cam called from a few feet away clearly having heard despite his conversation with Carly.

"Then why is your brother sniffling? That means he's been crying. And since he was with Matt, that means it's his fault," she growled.

"Mommy, I'm okay, I just got scared. I got lost in the locker room and then I could find Matt or Connor and thought I'd been abandoned again," Sabastian explained as he stopped sniffling. "But Matt came and found me right away."

Sharon melted, she grabbed up both of her Weres and held them close, "Oh, that must have been awful, but if Matt had come out of that locker room without you, you can bet I'd rush in there and find you, naked boys or not."

Matt laughed, he could hear all the other boys in there screaming at the sight of her rushing in unannounced. Teenage boys acted tough, but being naked in front of a girl, that was something different.

At the sound of his voice, Sharon looked back up at him, face going red. She offered him a terrified smile and quickly reached up to smooth down his collar, giving his shoulder a friendly pat, "So sorry, misunderstanding. My bad, I'm going to go now, bye Matt, good practice though."

Matt had a goofy smile on his face as he waved to her, trying not to laugh as she walked away with her head down, probably wishing she were invisible after an embarrassing moment. But he was glad that she was so protective of her wolves, it meant she had a lot of passion. As she caught up with Carly, he remembered what Connor had told him, and how Carly had laughed at him.

"Hey Lee, come here a sec," he called.

Carly gave him a knowing smile and walked over, "Yes?"

"Why did you not tell me that they weren't dating!" He tried to whisper, but failed.

"What? Is that what you meant earlier?" Cam asked. Wow, he really was stupid… But who had told him it was a lie, maybe he should lie and say it's true, then Matt would give up on it. But Carly started laughing again and Cam knew it was no use.

"I did tell you that you were wrong, in Physics! It's not my fault you asked like twenty questions and didn't know to which I was referring."

"Oh, you are a sneaky witch Lee! That's mean… You let me believe they were dating!"

"I may not have truly debunked it, but it was hilarious to think, sorry. It was just hilarious. But I guess to an outsider, they do seem really close, but since I know them really well, it's just funny."

"The only reason you'd be concerned if we were dating would be because you like her. Don't," Cam warned.

Carly turned around and held her breath, looking Cam in the eyes. It was no secret that he had little patience for lacrosse players (Danny and Scott being the main exceptions… Adam and maybe Stiles as well). Predictably, Cam looked at her and cocked his head, wondering why she was encouraging him.

"Carly, I've never seen you hang out with Daehler outside of class, what makes you think he's worthy? He's a lacrosse player!"

Matt stomped forward before Carly could answer, "What's it to you if I like her?"

"It's everything to me! Carly knows this too, so I'm completely confused as to why this was allowed, Carly?"

"He seems really nice, I put it off all year. But I finally decided to just let things happen; what right do I have to decide on who Sharon gets to meet?"

"You have every right when it comes to jocks like him!" Cam shot back, pointing at Matt.

Matt looked between the two, and then over to Sharon who was just looking at her feet. "I'm confused, I thought you were just a friend Cam, so why are you so against her dating?"

"I'm not against her dating idiot. I'm just against her dating assholes like you! Come on, let's get out of here, I can't stand to look at his face anymore."

"Sorry Matt," Carly offered.

"Don't apologize to him Carly, he's not worth the words," Cam responded, pulling Carly away from the lacrosse player.

Before long, Cam had both girls across the parking lot and into Carly's truck. Stiles and Scott came up next to him, having seen (but not heard) the spat.

"Dude, what did you do to get on Cam's bad side?" Stiles asked.

"Better apologize, it's not really fun being on his bad side, just ask Stiles," Scott offered.

"Why am I even on his bad side? I don't remember what the hell I did to him… do you think maybe he's forgotten?"

"Probably not, but it couldn't hurt to ask," Scott replied.

Matt watched as the two friends wandered off, thinking about what they'd just told him. Apparently Cam was known for having a mean side, and from what he'd just personally witnessed, it was now extended to him. He ran his hand through his hair as he slowly made his way to the parking lot, wondering just how he was going to get Sharon to like him now, and why she hadn't said anything during the whole encounter.


	5. Trouble At Practice

*Wednesday*

Carly had just pulled up to Sharon's house as her friend walked out the front door; it was a little weird for Carly to not get out of the driver's seat, she had to remind herself of their deal. But it wasn't that big of an issue, Carly loved to drive and Sharon had looked so relieved that she didn't have to drive for the next few mornings.

"So, guess what happened last night," Sharon said as she climbed into the truck, giving Connor and Sabastian a rather pointed look.

"Me thinks it has something to do with the twins?" Carly asked, noticing the look.

"I got a text from Matt last night," she revealed.

Carly raised a brow, "He has your number?"

"Apparently, although I didn't give it to him; I had no idea who it was at first, although they were asking about the Spanish homework so I figured it was someone from school. Turns out, Connor gave him my number after practice, and forgot to tell me."

Connor shrugged, sitting on the middle console, "He forgot what the Spanish homework was, and I didn't remember it either, so I gave him your number."

Carly kindly didn't point out that Matt could always just message her, she had Spanish as well, just not the same class and Matt regularly checked his homework with hers in Physics. Clearly Connor was up to something, and she decided to see how it would play out, at least this wasn't something Cam could blame on her.

"Mommy isn't mad right?" Sabastian asked, needed to make sure for the 5th time since last night.

Sharon laughed, reaching down to pet them, "No I'm not mad, I was just really surprised is all, but no harm done."

"I'm not sure Cam will see it that way," Carly countered. The ride home last night had been a little quiet, but Sharon had assured Carly that she'd done nothing wrong. Matt really did seem nice, and Carly only wanted Sharon to branch out. Cam was a different story though.

When they arrived at school, they noticed Matt standing out by their usual parking space, waving to them as Carly pulled in.

"Hey there stranger, what brings you here?" Carly asked as she hopped out of the truck, Ran on her shoulder.

"I was just walking by, thought I might check this place out, you know," Matt joked, looking over at the school.

"Hi Matt," Sharon greeted as she came around the front of the truck. "Sorry about what happened after practice."

Matt smiled, "Hey Sharon, thanks for texting me back, I totally forgot that you didn't have my number. You must have thought I was some weirdo. And I've already put the incident behind us."

"I still think that," Sharon joked, laughing at his shocked expression. But secretly she was glad that Cam's attitude hadn't completely scared him away; she might not know him that well but he was kinda cute.

"Okay, maybe so, but I'm a nice weirdo right?" he responded after catching the joking tone in her voice.

The small group headed into the school, Matt stopping to talk with some of the other players- conveniently right as Cam came over to them. Together, the three of them made the obligatory stop by their lockers to grab their books, making small talk until the first bell rang, signaling the start of another day; Carly waved as she departed to head to Spanish.

*First Period Spanish*

Ran wandered around on Carly's desk, hoping to catch a glimpse of the other two Weres in the classroom. She had noticed Jackson was bringing a new Were to school, and she was immensely curious as to why. But they didn't sit anywhere near her or Carly, which wasn't a surprise, Jackson didn't like Carly at all. Ran perked up when they walked in, Ran noting the Were sitting in Miss Lydia's purse as usual.

Peter looked around and saw the Beta looking at him, he hadn't seen her in this class before, but then again, he didn't really pay much attention the last few days. But he was intrigued by her, she hadn't been one of the Weres at the pet store, he was certain of that. But he didn't have much time to dwell on it, since Deucalion was already complaining about having to be here.

"Why are you taking Spanish? You should be taking a language like German, something that ties into your heritage," he called out to Jackson.

Peter tried not to growl, "This school doesn't have German, maybe something about it feeling too aggressive, everyone sounds like they're yelling."

Deucalion turned his head to look at the Beta, he had quickly tired of his superior attitude, "I don't recall asking for your inferior opinion, _Beta_."

Peter clenched his fists, why did Jackson, an already annoying boy, have to adopt an equally annoying Were? But on the plus side, he was super easy to rile up, and Peter loved to do that as often as possible. Instead of getting into a shouting match with the Alpha, he turned to Lydia to ask her about the Were on the other side of the room.

"Who is that person with a Were over there Lydia?"

At his question, Lydia glanced to where he was pointing, seeing the punked-out Junior and rolling her eyes. "That's Carly, she's a Junior, and apparently she has a Were pet, although I don't know where she got her. She's also in Trig class."

Peter could tell by her tone that Lydia didn't associate much with this Carly person, so that meant he wouldn't be getting to know the Were. It was a shame, she looked rather pretty in his opinion, he'd have to keep an eye out for her at the end of the day (that meant he couldn't sleep through Trig today).

Ran had overheard Lydia's description of Carly and could help but laugh at the cursory dismissal. There was a lot more to Carly than a lot of people realized since they were so quick to judge, but Carly wasn't bothered by it so neither was Ran. She wasn't too sad that she wouldn't be getting to meet the Weres- she had Connor and Sabastian, they were enough for her; and maybe she'd be meeting Stiles's Weres soon!

*Third Period Spanish*

Sharon sighed as she sat down, today just felt like it was dragging on, and it was only third period. Shop class had been fun though, her and Danny had figured out a really nice design for the potty seats and she felt pretty good about that. Hopefully tomorrow they'd have one all put together for the new Weres to test out.

"Hey there," Matt said, taking his usual seat next to her.

She smiled tiredly, "Hey."

"Really? Really? You aren't taking the hint?" Cam said. "Just how thick is your skull?"

"You look pretty tired, life being rough on you?" Matt pushed, worried crease on his brow. For now, he'd just do his best to completely ignore Cam.

"Didn't sleep too well and now I'm just dragging. But hopefully after I eat, I'll pick up a bit."

"Yea, that can usually help. You should try a Red Bull, those things are pretty good for energy."

Sharon laughed, "I don't like those, I crash pretty hard afterwards, not sure why, just do. They don't effect Carly that way."

Matt nodded his head, "I've heard of that happening to people before. It wouldn't be good if you crashed during fifth period or something."

"Will you stop encouraging him Sharon, eyes forward. I'm not going to share notes with you if you waste class time talking to him," Cam warned.

They both laughed, Sabastian suddenly wanted to try these Red Bulls they were talking about; he turned to ask his brother about them but Connor was too busy going over all of Sharon's notes. But both of them perked up their ears when they heard Matt speak up again.

"Hey uh, speaking of lunch, do you maybe want to come eat with me and my friends today. They are some of the guys from the lacrosse team, I know you don't know too many of them and I figured it would be cool if you knew some of the other guys you were cheering for," Matt chuckled.

"No," Cam stated simply. She was not going to be sitting with lacrosse players, not when most of them were in league with Jackson!

Sharon bit the tip of her pen, debating if this would be a good idea; she liked spending time with Matt, he was slowly becoming someone she considered a friend. But clearly it was making Cam really upset… But Carly had a point, she was old enough to be making her own decisions about people right? So she decided that she wanted to get to know him better, and she already knew that the invitation was extended to Carly. Maybe it would be nice to meet some of his friends, broaden her circle of friends. Cam would just have to deal with it!

Seeing the hesitation on her face, Connor nudged Sabastian (it would be too suspicious if Connor was always the one to say something).

"Mommy, can we? Connor and I can learn more about lacrosse this way, so we can help Matt with the plays," Sab suggested, nodding his head eagerly.

When Sharon saw how eager they were to maybe meet some more lacrosse players, she knew she had to say yes. Cam must have known too because he slammed his head onto his desk and cursed Carly under his breath. So she turned to Matt, "I guess I got roped into going. Will you go with me to get Carly and Ran?"

"Of course, we wouldn't want her to think you ditched her, plus Ran can meet some of the other Weres as well. Scott and Stiles both have some."

"Yay!" both the twins yelled out, happy to meet some more Weres and lacrosse players, plus this meant Mom got to spend time with Matt.

Connor gave the teen a sly wink, making sure Mom wasn't looking; surely he'd be asking her out at lunch like he'd suggested. Matt winked back and had to refrain from dancing in his seat the rest of the period. Sharon was feeling pretty excited too, although she hid it a little better than Matt. Cam saw both of their nervousness, since he was sitting behind them; he could already feel himself gagging. This was awful, how had this happened?

*Lunch*

Matt waited as Sharon packed up her things and stood up, he had half a mind to offer her his arm, but decided against it, thinking it might be too weird. Instead he held the door open for her and let her lead the way to Carly's English class. She met them out in the hallway, only slightly surprised to see Matt accompanying her friend; Cam staring at her mutinously in the background.

"Hey, to what to I owe the pleasure? I'm getting an armed escort to lunch? Did I piss someone off again?" Carly asked, only slightly serious.

Both Matt and Sharon laughed, Sharon grabbed Carly's arm and started pulling her to the cafeteria.

"Matt has been nice enough to invite us to sit with him today," Sharon explained as they made their way into the crowded room.

"Oh boy, and who else will be joining us?" Carly asked.

"Not me, I'll be sitting with the drama club. I've got something I need to talk to them about," Cam told them. Carly gave him a sad look but knew not to force the issue, maybe he'd see that Sharon was having a good time and be happy for her.

"Scott, Stiles and maybe a few of the other guys, not really sure," Matt responded, knowing most of the lacrosse players flocked together.

Carly nodded her head, Ran would get to meet Derek and Cora after all, that was cool. They scanned the room, Matt finally pointing out his friends as Scott waved to them. As Cam split off, he shot Carly a text: _watch out for her!_ Carly gave him a sharp nod and mouth 'I promise.' The girls followed as he led them to the table, quickly introducing them to his friends.

"Hey guys, meet Sharon and Carly," he started then pointing to the guys, "This is Scott, his girlfriend Allison, Stiles."

"Nice to meet you," Sharon and her Weres called out.

As they were all greeting each other, Stiles looked over Carly's shoulder and saw Cam glaring at the table and he leaned over to Scott, "I don't think he's forgiven me bro."

"I'm sure he's just thinking about something, don't worry about it," Scott answered.

Ran and Carly waved to them all as she plopped down at the table, Ran instantly wandering across the table to meet Derek and Cora. Then just as Sharon was sitting down, they heard a rather unpleasant voice.

"Ugh, what is the Freshie doing here? This is turning into quite the loser table, first McCall and Stilinski, now her and the freak. Joy."

Carly smiled brightly at Jackson, "I just love your team spirit Jackson, it would be quite the shame if you had to sit the next game out."

Lydia narrowed her eyes, unsure what Carly was referencing, but she recognized the threat; she pulled him down to the table anyways, not wanting to pass up her lunches with her best friend Allison.

"Let's all be nice," Lydia called out, setting Peter onto the table.

Sabastian and Connor gave Jackson a rude look, but decided to ignore him after that and went after Ran.

"Ran," they heard her say as she pointed to herself, they were very surprised she even spoke to the new Were.

"I'm Cora, and this is my brother Derek, you're the Were that's in Daddy's math class right? With that mean lady teacher," Cora asked, wanting to make sure she remembered correctly.

Ran nodded her head, then start Signing, but slumped a bit when she realized that Carly was talking with Scott. Connor and Sabastian shrugged, they didn't know too much of the language; Derek and Cora just stood there and looked very confused.

Sab cut in to explain, "Ran doesn't really like to talk much, she usually depends on Carly to translate for her, but she's busy and we only know a few Signs."

Ran gave them an apologetic smile, combing her fingers through her hair as she started to feel a little self-conscious. It had never really been a problem before and now she didn't know what to do about it. But then they were all taken by surprise when Stiles noticed the problem.

"Wait wait, let me try, just Sign really, really slow okay, I want to try and interpret," Stiles said, bending down over the table to see Ran's hands better.

Ran wagged her tail, thankful that he was being polite about it; his excited voice did get Carly's attention though, so she looked over with an amused look at the thought of Stiles attempting to translate.

Ran started to slowly Sign, pointing to herself, then touching her chin with her pointer finger and then pointing to the two wolves, a sad expression on her face.

"Okay, I and then you, meaning Derek and Cora, I got that. Umm," Stiles stalled as he flipped through his phone, concentrating. "Ah, got it, you missed them."

Ran clapped her hands, encouraging him, then she crossed her hands, both of them set as an 'A'.

Stiles went back to his phone, flicking his finger down his screen as he searched, "I can't find that one, but I'm going to guess math?" You missed them in math."

"Close," Carly called out.

Ran then put her hands in the 'M' shape and repeated the motion, "Oh, is that math? Oh I see, that's an 'M' right. Okay." Ran patiently nodded her head and then showed him the original sign she did with the 'A.'

"I see now, you did it with an 'A' so that means Algebra?" Stiles asked, looking up at Carly for clarification.

"That would be correct, good job. I didn't know you knew ASL."

Stiles blushed, "Uh, I don't really, I just started looking some stuff up last night."

Carly smiled, he had to have seen her and Ran talking then, Stiles always seemed ready to learn so this shouldn't surprise her.

Before she could say anything else, Matt cleared his throat, gathering everyone's attention, all the Weres (except Peter) looking up at him as well. He turned towards Sharon, a shy smile on his face, which caused Sharon's eyes to grow wide.

"Sharon, over the past few days, I feel like I've gotten to know you a little better, but I'd really like the opportunity to get to know you a lot better. Would you like to go out on a date with me Friday night?"

Connor stood there, big smile on his face, Matt had followed his advice, this was awesome; but next to him Sabastian was standing there with his mouth hanging open, what was he thinking? Mommy was sure to freak out like this, too many new people here. Sharon's face was red and she was biting her lip, in front of all these people? She shook her head, not really able to speak, being unsure of what to say anyways. Connor sputtered, why was Mom saying no? Didn't she like Matt?

Matt face fell, he had really hoped she'd say yes, he was sure that Connor hadn't been lying to him. So why had she said no? He hoped he hadn't been completely wrong, maybe it was just too soon, or perhaps she was just busy that night? He rubbed the back of his neck, "That's okay then, no worries."

Carly gave him an apologetic look, opening her mouth the say something but Jackson beat her to it.

"Wow, Daehler, even the Freshie won't go out with you, that's harsh. Talk about a low blow," Jackson said, laughing at his teammate.

Matt's face flushed, partially out of embarrassment and partially from anger; Sharon was free to say no if she wanted to, he didn't need to be commenting on it, or trying to make it super embarrassing. He turned to say something to Sharon but she had already stood up; she gave him a small smile as she picked up the twins and then quickly left the table.

Carly scowled at Jackson, knowing some choice things she wanted to say to him, but Sharon was more important. So she said a quick goodbye to everyone and scooped Ran up, following after her friend. As she left, she gave Matt a reassuring smile, letting him know they'd talk about it; Ran waved to Derek and Cora, wishing she'd been able to get to know them more. As she was looking back at the table, she noticed the Were from Spanish look over at her and wave. She tilted her head in confusion, unsure why he was waving, but she held up her hand and offered a small wave, not wanting to be rude.

As soon as Cam saw Sharon get flustered and run out of the cafeteria, Cam knew the worst thing had just happened. He stormed over to the table to confront Matt and he heard Jackson laughing his ass off.

"Jock, tell me you didn't make the mistake I think you did?" Cam demanded.

"If you mean that he asked Sharon out, then yea, he totally just goofed," Jackson offered, knowing how Cam was about lacrosse players, just like everyone else (except apparently Daehler).

"I swear to-" Cam started before taking a deep breath. "You asked her out, she said no, so it's over now okay. Walk away while you still have use of your legs. Scott, Stiles, make sure he actually listens this time!"

Without waiting for an answer he stormed off to go find the girls. Everyone at the table watched him go, unsure of what to say. Matt just groaned and excused himself from the table, telling everyone he was fine.

*Outside*

By the time Carly had caught up with her friend, she could hear Connor and Sabastian talking to each other while Sharon sat with her face in her hands.

"Connor, what were you thinking?" Sab asked, looking at his brother with an exasperated expression.

"What? I though Mom would like the attention."

"Mommy is shy, you know that! Why would she want attention?"

Connor snorted, "Mom isn't shy."

Sabastian rolled his eyes, "Not around us she isn't, but around new people she is, duh!"

Carly sat down, not interrupting the twins as they continued to argue, "Hey, you okay?"

"Yea, that was really embarrassing though, I mean, it was fine but then Jackson went and said something. I didn't want Matt to feel bad so I just left, you don't think he thinks I hate him right?"

Carly shrugged, "I doubt it, and I'm sure he'll be asking about it in Physics anyways."

"Tell him I'm not mad! I just didn't want to continue to sit there with Jackson making fun of him. I was too way too shocked and embarrassed to say anything. All I could do was shake my head. Why did I say no?" Sharon asked, looking to her friend for an answer.

"Well, like you just said, you were shocked, more than likely you shook your head because you didn't want everyone to be there, not necessarily that you didn't want to go out on a date with him. I'll let him know you aren't mad, nor do you hate him, it will be fine. Are we still going to practice at least? He'll want to know."

Sharon nodded her head, "Connor and Sab love to play, I'm sure they wouldn't want to miss out, it will be fine."

"Speaking of Connor and Sabastian, what are they arguing about?"

Ran sighed then, telling Carly about the conversation she'd had with the boys the other day. Carly couldn't help but laugh as she translated for Sharon, apparently Connor thought a public display was the right way to go and he didn't understand why it backfired.

Sharon sighed, pulling the boys to her, "I get that you both like Matt a lot, but try not to interfere anymore, please. I'm having a hard enough time with this as it is."

Connor looked down at his feet, "Sorry Mom."

She nuzzled him, "It's fine Connor, I'm not mad or anything I promise. Just very surprised you warmed up to him so fast that you started giving him advice. Matt and I can figure this out on our own from this point."

"Come on, let's stop by the lockers before class starts, I need my books, and I'm sure you do too," Carly suggested, standing up once more. When they had gotten to the lockers, Cam had finally caught up with them and pulled Sharon into a hug; he knew she was probably really embarrassed, especially with having Jackson there to witness it.

"You going to be okay?" he asked. When Sharon nodded, he let out a sigh of relief. "Good, then I'm going to borrow Carly okay. I'll see you after class."

With that, he grabbed Carly's arm and pulled her back outside and around to the far side of the cafeteria.

"What the HELL you were thinking?!" he yelled.

*Fourth Period Physics*

Matt was hanging in the classroom, looking at his textbook dejectedly; he'd come here as soon as he left the cafeteria…might as well wait it out for Lee to show up. But before he knew it the bell had rung and she hadn't shown up… this was bad. Was she so angry at him that she refused to come to class? Or maybe it was Sharon that was really upset and Lee was trying to consoel her? What if it was so bad that she asked to be taken home!

"That was stupid of me, I knew Sharon is really shy, I shouldn't have put her on the spot," Matt groaned aloud. "She probably hates me now, doesn't want to talk to me anymore, not after something like that."

Matt had to be sure that everything was okay, so he carefully pulled out his phone and sent her a text, praying that she'd answer him.

*Outside*

"I wasn't thinking anything, I had no idea that was going to happen, I swear! I thought he was just going to introduce her to some of the guys. Scott and Stiles aren't that bad right?"

"Bullshit! You knew that Matt had a huge crush on her and you were encouraging it from the start!" Cam yelled.

"No, you got that wrong! Not from the start," Carly tried to explain but Cam cut her off.

"I don't want to hear it Carly! Or should I call you Lee now? Why did you do it?"

"Make up your mind, do you want to hear what I have to say or not? I don't know what you want from me Cam," Carly confessed. Just then her phone dinged, startling them. Carly just rolled her eyes and left her phone in her pocket, there was no doubt it was from Matt.

"What does Buddy Boy want now?" Cam sneered.

Carly just shrugged, not saying anything. But then her phone dinged again, and then again- Carly cursed under her breath… now was so not the time for this. Cam suddenly stepped forward and reached into her pants pocket.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Carly yelled, shocked by his movements.

"Taking this stupid thing!" Cam explained as he whipped it out of her pocket. He cocked his arm back and threw it as far as he could. "God, I don't want to hear another freaking ding!"

Ran growled, up until then she'd been hiding under Carly's hair, but she wasn't going to let Cam start destroying her stuff.

"I'll buy you another one, now start talking dammit!"

"Matt told me early on in the year that he had liked this girl, I had no idea it was Sharon at first, but then he must have seen us together at some point. Then he started asking me about her, all kinds of questions. I didn't tell him much, mostly because I'm just as cautious when it comes to Sharon-"

"I'm starting to doubt that!"

"I waited all year to finally even agree to go to practice to watch him play, because I knew he'd want me to bring Sharon! I put it off as long as I could. From what I could tell Matt was really nice! He hung out with Scott and Stiles, he was a good player… he works hard in Physics and Algebra! I didn't think it was a big deal!"

"Don't you know anything Carly! I thought Sharon told you about what happened! If you were really her friend, you never would have let Matt within 50 feet of her!" Cam growled, getting in Carly's face.

"All she told me was that she had some crappy boyfriend a few years ago and that you guys got into some big fight over it. Apparently it got a little ugly but you guys managed to patch things together. Ever since then you've had it out for lacrosse players, just by association. I thought that maybe if Matt was a good guy… you'd see past that."

Cam scoffed, "That's all she told you, that's really how she explained it? Right… it got a 'little' ugly. Carly, I swear… you need to keep Matt away from her! I won't allow them to get close!"

"Why? What's so bad about lacrosse players Cam? I mean I know Jackson is an ass but not all of them are," Carly asked quietly, not wanting to upset him further.

Cam pushed past her and slammed his fist into the side of the building, causing Carly to flinch, "Do you really want to know the ugly truth of it? Okay, fine- I'll tell you."

Cam whirled around and grabbed Carly by the shoulders, looking her straight in the eyes, "That asshole that Sharon dated about a year ago, his name was Jacob and he played lacrosse. He was a lot like Jackson really, just to give you an idea- he was arrogant, tough, and believed everyone should worship the ground he walked on. At first, things were okay, but then I noticed that Jacob was becoming more and more bossy, while Sharon was becoming quieter. He was always ordering her around, isolating her from her friends. Sharon was shy even back then, but she did have a few other friends besides me. I was the hardest one to push away, I didn't let her make half-assed excuses to get out of hanging out with me. But Jacob didn't like that- he practically banned her from going to the rink after school. She had to spend all of her time with him and no one else!

"We started fighting about it, she was actually thinking of quitting, just walking away from skating and from me! Of course I wouldn't stand for that, I wasn't going to let her walk away from skating just because some boy told her to- I could tell that it wasn't what she really wanted. We fought more and more, until we finally reached our breaking point; yea, it got a little ugly. But in the end, Sharon and I realized that we needed each other, and that Jacob was scum. So she broke up with him, finally, and we moved on. After that… I decided that not just anyone got to date Sharon, only those that were worthy. And since then I've seen more and more lacrosse players with that same filthy attitude, it's toxic Carly. Can't you see that?"

"Cam… Is, is that why you hate the players so much?" Carly asked.

Cam let his arms drop, "Yea. The only reason I accept Danny is because he's proved time and again that he's a genuinely nice guy, Adam too. I've known them since like 4th grade. Scott proved to be a really great guy as well during that time, and then he just happened to get talked into joining the lacrosse team by Stiles. That was just unlucky, but not Scott's fault."

"I really had no idea it had been that bad," Carly sympathized. She shuddered to think of how things might have been if Cam hadn't been so adamant in their friendship. It wasn't hard to see why he was so scared for her. "But Matt-"

"Matt is just as bad Carly, trust me! She can't date him Carly…. Not him, please! You have to understand," Cam pleaded, a desperate look in his eyes. "I believe you when you say he's been nothing but nice to you, but I know things you don't okay? Trust me, not Matt!"

"What do you know? Tell me," Carly said, stepping closer to Cam.

"I can't, I don't want to ruin your relationship with him. He doesn't have a criminal record or anything like that. Just something that I refuse to let Sharon get involved with."

"Okay, okay fine… I won't push. I'm sorry that all of this has upset you. But I do think damage has been done, she likes him Cam, at least a little bit. I don't know what to do now. How am I supposed to choose Cam, you or Sharon?"

"Dammit! I knew I should have just punched him in the face, or let him believe I was her boyfriend. Now I have to do damage control. You just go ahead and be her friend, leave the dirty work to me. I don't want you guys to end up alienated over this. One of her friendships was almost ruined because of a lacrosse player, I'm not going to make it two. Sharon already knows what to expect from me, and she knows my boundaries. Just please, if you notice anything from him that makes you uneasy, tell me right away!"

"I will, I promise. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring all of this back up. I can see how upset it made you. Are we still friends?"

Cam laughed then, "Of course we are. I'm sorry I yelled so much, I was just so mad at everything. I thought you knew the full story and were just disregarding it. Now that all of this has been aired out, we'll move past it. We're still friends- if we weren't who else would I talk to in Latin? Or discuss comic book characters with?"

Seeing that things were finally calming down, Ran climbed down Carly's clothes all the way to the ground and then scampered over to the remains of Carly's phone. She picked through the rubble and found the SD card, knowing that was the important piece; she held it gently between her teeth and ran back to the humans. Then tugging angrily on Cam's pants, she got his attention.

"New phone mister," she growled, handing over the card when Cam bent down.

"Oh, right, sorry about that too. I'll have your new phone to you later today, I promise."

Carly picked Ran up and smiled at Cam, "That would be much appreciated. Now can we go back inside before we miss any more classes?"

"Nerd," Cam teased affectionately, glad that he'd gotten all of that off of his chest. And extremely happy that Carly hadn't lashed back and decided to end their friendship; that was important to him as well.

*Fifth Period English*

Sharon tried to sit still, time needed to go faster, once school was over she'd be able to talk to Matt and hopefully clear everything up. She knew Carly would have explained things to him, but she would feel a lot better if he heard it from her as well. Biology had taken forever to go by, but luckily Danny had kept Jackson busy so he didn't make fun of her much. But Danny wasn't in English, and Jackson kept pointed at her and laughing, just quiet enough that Miss Thompson wouldn't notice.

She was actively ignoring him, not sparing him any glances, just dutifully taking notes and pretending like he didn't exist. But Jackson refused to be ignored, so about halfway through the period, he chucked a piece of paper at her head. Sharon let out a slow breath out from her nose, counting to ten, then she swept the paper off the desk and went back to taking notes. She heard Jackson make a frustrated noise and then another tearing of paper. Her shoulders tensed as she waited for him to throw it, this time it landed on her desk, with 'read me' stamped on top of it.

Connor and Sabastian looked up at her, wondering if she was going to ignore it or pick it up, neither of them knew which would be better. Since it was coming from Jackson, it was sure to be not good, but if she ignored it, then he'd just keep throwing them. Maybe she could just pretend to read it? But they knew that wouldn't work, Mom would be too worked up to not actually see what he had written. They continued to look at each other, until five minutes later she finally huffed and uncrumpled the note.

The twins watched as her eyes scanned the note, her face quickly going from frustrated to worried, then sad. She laid the paper down on her desk, staring down at her hands as she contemplated what to do about it. Sabastian nudged his brother and they went over to read it.

'Loser,  
>I'm only going to be nice about this once, stop bothering Daehler. Now that you've turned him down, he'll be able to concentrate on lacrosse again. His game has really suffered since you started showing interest in him, and I can't have one of my best players getting distracted. I have no idea what you pulled in order to get him to notice you, but it needs to stop. Don't let me see you at any more practices, or the upcoming games. Just go back to your little hole and be a loser with your freak friend. You'd never fit in with the rest of us anyways. We don't need a replay of what happened in history right?'<p>

As they finished reading it, they looked back up to their Mom, seeing her staring down at her bruised wrist. It wasn't looking much better, it had settled at a dark purple color and looked like it would be there awhile. Sabastian walked closer to her, wanting to hug her but before he could, she reached down into her pack, not noticing the Were. Her visions was blurred from the tears in her eyes and she just wanted to get out of here. She pulled out her phone and pulled up Matt's name, sending him a quick text, asking if he could meet her by the trophy case. Then she packed away her things and asked if she could be excused, mumbling something about not feeling well. As she walked away, she heard Jackson snickering, knowing that he'd won, but she didn't look back at him; it took all her strength not to bolt from the classroom.

*Fifth Period Algebra*

Matt dejectedly walked down to math alone, Carly hadn't answered any of his messages… she must be really upset with him. At first he thought maybe she was driving Sharon home and just being responsible; but enough time had passed that it was clear she was just ignoring him. As he sat down, Carly appeared by his side, whispering a very quiet apology.

"I ended up having a long talk with Cam, and then next thing I know, it's time for Algebra 2. Cam ended up taking my phone –throwing, Ran so helpfully corrected- because he was a little peeved at all the dings. So I didn't have a chance to answer."

"Oh," was all Matt could say. He hadn't been expecting that answer at all; of all the scenarios to run through his head, that one was a complete shock. But really, throwing her phone? Cam was just proving to be more of an issue than previously thought. If he was the kinda guy that throw phone when he got mad, what else might he do?

Class started before Matt could say anything else, but that was just as well, since Carly had been with Cam, that meant she didn't know how Sharon was doing either. Matt sighed, this whole day was just getting worse and worse. While class started, Matt just sat there doodling on his notes, not really paying attention. He'd just ask Carly for the homework later, he just couldn't bring himself to care right now. When his phone went off in his pocket, he jumped, not expecting it; no one ever messaged him during class. Making sure Mrs. Duff wasn't looking his way, he pulled his phone out and looked at the message, eyes going wide.

Carly noticed his shift in position and glanced over, wanting to make sure he wasn't still wallowing, but she was met with a concerned, pale-faced Matt who was staring at him phone. She looked up, making sure no one had noticed and poked him with her pencil to get his attention, mouthing a 'what?' at him when he looked up. Knowing it was unwise to try and whisper, Matt just handed over his phone, legging bouncing as he waited for her to read over it.

As soon as Carly saw it was from Sharon, Carly went to pull her phone out of her pocket wanting to make sure she hadn't missed a text from her friend. But she couldn't, her phone was lying in a few different pieces. Oh if she missed some important text from Sharon because Cam was having a fit, he'd never hear the end of it. Despite this, Carly knew this was clearly something big if it made Sharon decide to pull out her phone during class. She quickly typed up a response in Matt's open text box before chucking it back to him:

'_You better go see,_ _Sharon never uses her phone during school so this is serious. And you better find me as soon as you as you can and tell me what's wrong!'_

Matt read through the message and nodded his head, knowing Carly would have a fit if she didn't find out. He asked to go to the bathroom, barely remembering to grab the hall pass as he hurried out the door. As he jogged through the hallways, his mind kept flashing different scenarios, this had to be connecting to what happened at lunch, why else would she text him? By the time he reached the trophy case, he had worked himself into a corner, certain that Sharon was going to yell at him the moment she saw him, but when he looked at her face, he saw that tears and knew he had it all wrong.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong Sharon?" he asked gently, reaching out to touch her shoulder.

Sharon didn't say anything, instead she just thrust the note into his hands, wiping at her eyes while he read it. By the time he was done, Sharon could see his hands clenching in anger, the note crumpled in his fist. And that's when Cam came around the corner- all he saw was Matt looking very angry and Sharon standing there with tears falling. He snapped.

"Daehler, get away from her NOW!" he called out, running forward and putting himself between the two of them. "I don't care how many times she turns you down, you have no right to get in her face like this Jock! Turn and walk away before I murder you in the middle of the hallway!" he warned, slamming Matt against the wall.

He raised his fist but Sharon cried out and clung to Cam's back, too upset to say anything coherent. Cam let go of Matt and turned to his friend, "Why are you crying, Arachide, just say the word and he's dead."

Sharon shook her head and buried her face in his chest, "Matt can explain."

Instead of explaining, Matt just handed the note to Cam and leaned around, trying to talk to Sharon. No way was he going to try and explain anything, not with Cam being this close to murder, he'd let the note speak for itself.

Cam scanned over the note, crumpling it up as he finished, "Sharon, why did you not message me, why did you text him?"

"Did he really say this to you? What is his problem? We should go to Ms. Morrell, this is a big deal," Matt said at the same time.

"No! I don't want to cause problems like that, everyone would hate me for getting the lacrosse captain in trouble, please don't tell her. I just, it just really shook me when I read it. I had to get out of class and I needed to show someone," Sharon said, doing her best not to sniffle. The she stepped back to look at her friend, "I knew if I messaged you, you'd break down the door to class and murder Jackson right there for making me cry. You'd be expelled and I don't want that. I didn't even text Carly because her reaction would have been only marginally better."

Cam dropped the note onto the floor and pulled Sharon in to a tight embrace, she didn't deserve this, not because of Matt. From behind him, Matt bent down and picked up the note, stuffing it into his pocket- this would be more than enough to explain the whole thing to Carly.

"He shouldn't get away with threatening things like that, look at your arm. That's serious, he can't get away with stuff like that, it's only going to get worse if you don't stand up to him," Matt tried to reason.

Cam sneered, "Oh don't worry, he won't get away with it, trust me."

"I just don't want to go to Ms. Morrell, that would just get ugly. I'm sorry I made you come rush out of class, I probably had you really worried. And you Cam, I'm sure you about had a heart attack when you saw me standing here crying."

"That's an understatement," Cam said, laughing dryly.

"Yea, I was- just a bit, speaking of worried, I need to message Carly, so she knows what's going on," Matt said aloud, pulling out his phone. "Oh, I can't! You broke her phone!" Matt declared, staring pointedly at the other boy.

"Cam, did you really break her phone, when did you do that?" Sharon asked, just a bit surprised.

Cam just shrugged, "It was when I pulled Carly away for a private conversation. Jock here wouldn't stop texting her and I was a little annoyed. Don't worry, I'm getting her another one."

Sharon gave him a small laugh, not at all surprised by his reaction, "Just please, neither of you go beat Jackson, I don't want anyone to get suspended because of me. Carly is probably going to be pretty pissed too."

Matt shook his head to reassure her, "No, I can at least wait until we're out on the field, and I'll tell Carly I'm handling it. I'm sure you don't want to go back to class, but what about your 6th period?"

"No, I'd rather not, I'm feeling rather drained you know," Sharon replied, too afraid to tell him that she had him in History too.

Matt nodded his head, "I understand, I'll walk you to the nurse's office and you can wait there for Carly after school, is that okay?"

"I can walk her, you should probably get back to class Daehler. I'm sure Carly is really starting to worry."

"You can both walk me, and with no fighting please," Sharon cut in.

Cam rolled his eyes but didn't say anything further, instead he just gently pushed Sharon in the right direction. Matt started walking on her other side, as far away from Cam as possible! It wasn't until later that he realized Cam had been wandering the halls, and he decided to bring it up.

"What were you doing out of class Cam?"

Cam glared at him, "I was taking care of some business, business that you shouldn't be poking you fat nose into." There was no way that he was going to tell Matt what he and Carly had been talking about, nor that he was cutting out of 5th to try and calm down some more. Matt didn't need to know any of that information.

Matt just shrugged it off, knowing that Cam was always going to be an ass to him. Instead, he was internally debating if he should bring up what had happened at lunch- it really didn't seem like a good time (especially with Cam here). Before he could dwell on it too long, Sharon ended up talking about it.

"I-I wanted to talk to you about lunch, while you're here I guess. I know Carly has probably told you that I'm not mad or anything. Really, I'm not, I just wasn't expecting it, and Jackson made things so much worse, I'm sorry."

Matt laughed a bit when Cam groaned, "No need to be sorry, although I'm super relieved you aren't mad at me, no matter how many times Carly insisted that you weren't. I had no idea he'd be there, and I really should have known that you would be uncomfortable about it. But we're still friends right?"

Cam stared at him, here he was blatantly lying to Sharon- he knew for a fact that Carly had been out of class during Physics. He also knew that she had Mrs. Duff for Algebra 2, there was no talking in that class, period! There was no point in lying, so why was he?

Sharon smiled at Matt, "Yea, of course we are."

Matt nodded his head, happy with her response, and just then Connor appeared from behind her curtain of hair where he'd been sitting as he hugged Mom's neck.

"I'm sorry I gave you the wrong information Matt, I was sure she'd love it. It's all my fault, but I'm glad you're still friends with Mom!"

"No worries little guy, even if it was the right thing to do, Sharon could have said no if she wanted. I'm not going to not be her friend just because she said no. Unless of course she told me to get lost…"

"Get lost!" Cam said, but Matt steadfastly ignored him.

"No, I don't want that, it's nice having someone else to talk to, not that I don't love Carly and you Cam, it's just… ugh."

"I know what you mean, don't worry, I won't tell Carly… Okay, maybe just some slight teasing… I can't help it," Matt chuckled as they came up to the nurse's office.

Cam grumbled, he could see why Carly had been pulled in by this joker's act, he really couldn't blame her. Nor could he really blame Sharon for latching onto this new potential friendship (that's all it was ever going to be, end of story!), Carly had really been bring her out of her shell more and more lately. Cam was happy for that, he really was… he just had the horrible luck that she happened to get attached to a lacrosse player.

Thankfully the nurse didn't ask too many questions and even gave Matt an excuse slip, explaining why he'd been out of class for so long. Cam was adamant about staying with her, not even bothering with an excuse slip, to Hell with what his teachers might say. Matt said a quick goodbye to Sharon and thanked the nurse before heading back to class. He hoped that Carly was still in class and not roaming the halls looking for them- there was no telling what mood he'd find her in. Despite all that, he had a smile on his face, Sharon really didn't hate him and they'd still be able to hang out, now he felt silly for worrying so much.

*After School*

Sharon waited patiently in the nurse's office with Cam; both of them were wondering how Carly was doing. It kinda sucked that she had no way to talk to them, now that her phone was a little busted. Sharon watched the clock tick down and waited- Carly came bursting through the door, maybe five seconds after the final bell rang. She came and sat on the little cot, patting Sharon's leg while Ran climbed over to her brothers, pulling them into a hug knowing they needed comfort as well.

"I know Matt told me that you are against it, but are you sure you don't want to take this to Ms. Morrell?"

Sharon shook her head, "That would only be more trouble, it's fine."

"Yea, it's fine until it isn't. But it's your choice, but you just say the word and we'll head straight to her office and show her the note. I've got it in my bag for safe keeping."

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind, let's get out of here."

"Did you want me to take you home, or?"

"Please go home Arachide, you don't need to see what happens at practice," Cam begged.

"Oh man, that's so embarrassing," Sharon grumbled as she thought about what she was going to do.

"Arachide, that sounds cool, what's that from? Carly asked.

"Oh no," Sharon moaned, knowing Cam was going to tell. He hardly ever used that nickname, only in the most serious of times, so Carly had never heard it before.

"It means peanut in French," Cam whispered conspiratorially.

"Oh, that's adorable!" Carly squeed, hugging Sharon. "I promise I won't tell anyone, but how cute is that?"

Sharon pushed her friend awhile as she continued thinking- about the note, knowing Cam was being serious, and then she remembered what Matt had said, "I still want to go watch practice, to Hell with what Jackson says. Besides I'm sure the boys would love to go as well. I'm not going to let him get to me!"

"Alright then, let's go," Carly smiled, jumping off the small cot.

Cam sighed but knew it was no use trying to talk her out of this, she was set. At least she'd have him and Carly there to keep an eye out for her, Jackson would have to be a bigger idiot than Daehler to even think about trying anything.

*On The Field*

Carly and Sharon took their same spot on the bleachers as last time, calling out so Matt would know they came. Of course that meant Jackson knew too, but they didn't care, he wasn't in control of Sharon's life. Matt saw them waving and jogged over, he had a few minutes before the warm up laps.

"You came," he beamed, although he didn't miss the protective arm Cam had over her shoulders.

"Yea, Jackson can stuff it!" Sharon told him, grinning.

Connor and Sabastian jumped up and down, arms up so Matt would let them climb on up. But Matt shook his head, "Sorry guys, I don't want you to practice with me today, I'm going to be playing a little rough and I don't want you to get hurt."

The twins looked hurt at first, but when they saw the heated glance Matt gave Jackson's back, they understood. "Give him all you got Matt," Connor told him, holding up a hand for a high-five.

"Be careful okay, he's not just going to let you do that," Sharon warned, not wanting Matt to get hurt over her problem.

"Yea, if you end up getting hospitalized, I'm going to have to find a new lab partner, and everyone else in class sucks!" Carly teased.

"Oh yes, please get hospitalized, I swear I'll transfer into Physics myself and be your new partner Carly," Cam offered, smiling darkly at Matt.

Matt brought his hands to his heart, "I'm so glad you care," he said, pretending to sniffle.

Coach blew his whistle then, letting all the players know it was time to start, so Matt waved and jogged back to the center of the field. Sabastian and Connor jumped off Sharon's lap and sat down on the row in front of them; from there, they could cheer and jump and not worry about ruining Mom's outfit. It wasn't long before Ran decided to join them, wanting to be near them just in case they decided to run out on the field for any reason.

After the warm-ups, Matt started in on his plan to get back at Jackson, with a little help from McCall and Stilinski (they were only too happy to help). He started by stealing all of his passes, claiming that he forgot Jackson was positioned behind him, then when they switched drills, Matt tripped over his feet a few times, which caused him to slam into Jackson. He could tell that Jackson was getting pissed, he had started yelling at him to concentrate.

"Have you forgotten all the drills Daehler? I push forward remember?"

"Stop stealing the ball or I'm going to kick you off the team!"

"God Daehler, pay attention to where you're going."

So Matt stepped it up a notch. It started with Scott passing him some long balls, which he needed to move to get to; it led to a lot of pushing Jackson around the field and even the occasional whack with his crosse. And he even managed to do all of it without the Coach noticing too much, so his performance wasn't marked down horribly.

"Damn that hurt, stop waving your crosse around before I shove it up your ass!"

"I swear to God, if you hit me one more time…"

By the time practice was over, Jackson was steaming, he immediately plucked off his helmet and stormed to the bleachers, rudely pushing through all the other guys on the field. The Weres saw him coming their way and all jumped into Carly's lap for safety; the girls also stood up, not wanting to be stuck sitting while he raged, Cam climbed in front of them.

"Do you see why I told you not to come to practice, Daehler was horrendous today, I'm sure you noticed. He's lucky I don't suggest he get benched, although if this keeps up I will! You're a horrible influence on him, so leave."

Matt came trotting over as Jackson unleashed on her, but Carly held him back just before he reached her. She knew that Sharon wanted to stand up to him once and for all, she'd feel better if she did it on her own, without help from either of them. Cam was standing back, just waiting for Jackson to lift a finger, but until then he'd let Sharon do whatever she wanted.

"Maybe if you weren't such a bad Captain, your players would listen to you more, I saw a lot of them out there ignoring your directions."

"This has nothing to do with my skills as a captain! You're the one interfering here, what would you know about lacrosse anyways?" Jackson spat out.

"I don't need to know anything about lacrosse to know that no one respects you as their Captain, that's plain as day!"

Carly could have hugged Sharon, she wasn't letting Jackson push her around, she was finally giving him a piece of her mind, and he had no idea how to respond.

"I'm respected, you're just too stupid to know what respect looks like, now get out of here before I tell Coach you're stalking one of the players. You're a nobody, and as a nobody that means you aren't good enough to date one of my players. You aren't wanted here," Jackson sneered, hoping to push her over the edge.

Sharon's hands clenched into fists, "What do you know about being wanted? You're adopted!"

Jackson's face paled and then instantly heated up, turning a furious shade of crimson, he grabbed Sharon's shoulder and pulled her closer, his other hand raised up threateningly. Carly and Matt reacted instantly, realizing that he had been pushed over the edge; Matt yanked Jackson's hand off of her and put himself between the two of them while Carly came up and just about tackled Cam while ensuring that Sharon was tucked safely behind Matt. Sharon looked up at Jackson's face, she could tell it had gotten ugly; if looks could kill she would have been dead.

"Out of the way Daehler, this is between me and her, no one gets to talk to me like that! No one!" he shouted in Matt's face, trying to push past him.

Sharon whimpered, totally terrified, Jackson looked like he was ready to kill her, she had no idea he would get so mad. As Jackson tried to push past Matt, he held on arm out to block him and the other pressed against Sharon's side, keeping her safely behind him. She quickly reached down and clutched his arm, unconsciously huddling closer to him for protection. Carly on the other hand had her hands full with Cam, he was trying to tear out of her grasp and get to Jackson.

"No, Cam don't, you can't get into a fight with Jackson, not out here. If he and Matt get into it, Coach isn't likely to suspend them, but you he will. Please calm down, regardless of what you think of him, Matt isn't going to let Sharon get hit."

Eventually her words got through to him and he calmed down a bit, just enough for Carly to get Stiles's attention by waving frantically at him. They were definitely going to need reinforcements in case this got ugly, especially if Cam slipped out of her hold and went for Jackson. Stiles quickly grasped the situation and came running over while Scott went to distract Coach, that way no one was going to get suspended.

"Hey, Jackson, I think Coach needs yo-" Stiles started.

"Shut up Stilinski, this doesn't concern you."

"Well you see it kinda does, you're threatening to get into a fight with a girl that's much smaller than you, and as the Sheriff's son, I can't let that happen."

Jackson rounded on the skinny teen, "Are you saying you'd like to take her place, because I have absolutely no problem hitting you too!"

"Jackson, come on let's just go home," Lydia said, trying to intervene.

But he just waved her off, turning back towards Matt, "Just move on, she already turned you down, she's bad for your concentration anyways."

"No she isn't, not at all. The reason I was so bad today was because I just felt like ruining your day," Matt shrugged. "It worked didn't it? I'm a great player, and having her here doesn't distract me, so stop telling her to leave or I'll quit the team."

"Yea, that means I'll get to play! We don't need him, right Jackson?" Stiles jumped in, looking at Jackson like it would be perfect.

"I hate all of you. You losers all want to stick together? Fine, whatever, I'm out of here, let's go Lydia!"

Lydia quickly bent down to pick up her purse, following after Jackson's retreating figure. The rest of the group quickly let out sighs of relief, glad that it hadn't broken out into a fistfight.

"Thanks for helping out Stiles, I think it wouldn't have gotten a lot worse if you hadn't come over. I would have hated to see Matt get suspended over him," Carly said, pulling him into a hug. Cam stormed off after Jackson, to make sure he really was leaving, and to also make sure that he didn't do anything to Lydia.

Stiles stood there for a moment, completely shocked before he realized he should probably return the hug. They stayed like that for a few moments until Allison was there with all the other Weres piled in her arms, a worried look on her face.

"Sorry Matt, I didn't mean for it to get so bad, I'm just so tired of him bullying me, t-thank you for protecting me," Sharon mumbled, hiding her face in the back of his shoulder.

"Of course I'm going to protect you, he has no right to try and hit you, no matter what you might have said to him. I thought you handled him pretty well up 'til that point."

He turned around to hug her, gently pulling his arm out of her grasp, wanting her to know she was safe. Carly took a few steps back, wanting to give them space, asking Allison what was wrong.

"I've never really seen Jackson mad before, so I don't know how often it happens, but suddenly I'm worried about Lydia, what if he gets mad at her like that?"

At her words, Stiles stiffened, he'd kick the crap out of Jackson if he ever found out he laid a hand on her. But the group agreed that they'd have to be wary around him for awhile- his bad moods lasted a couple of days at least.

"I think Cam went and followed him, so at least until they are off school property, nothing will happen to Lydia," Carly promised.

"We should get you home," Matt suggested, releasing Sharon from the hug. As he started to pull away, she reached up and planted a quick kiss on his cheek, silently thanking him. Matt tried his hardest not to smile like an idiot as he started walking her to the parking lot.

Carly said goodbye to the others and walked with her friends out to her truck, Sharon staying tucked under Matt's arm, clearly she was still shook up over the whole thing. As Matt was about to help her climb into the truck Cam reappeared and pulled Sharon into a hug. He whispered something in her ear but Matt couldn't make it out, although Sharon nodded.

"I'm going to catch a ride home with Cam, I'll see you guys tomorrow okay?" Sharon said, running over to give Carly a hug.

"Hey, thanks for holding me back, you're right, if I get suspended then I won't be able to keep an eye on Sharon. If anything needs to happen it will have to be outside of school," Cam called over, raising a hand in thanks.

Carly nodded her head and then hugged Sharon, knowing she was in good hands. Matt pulled her aside real quick before Cam got his hands in her again and promised to text her later after he got home to check on her. She smiled at him, thanking him again for being there. The two of them walked off towards Cam's bike and Matt watched them go. Then he walked around to Carly's side to give her a hug as well, knowing that they were all feeling suddenly stressed. After telling her to drive carefully, he walked back to the locker room to change and head home. But first he sent Sharon a smiley face text, wanting her to know that he'd be there if she needed to text him.

* * *

><p>AN: Just want to let everyone know, we do not look down upon those who are adopted, and we know that what Sharon said during the little fight was very mean. But in our eyes, it seemed like the most hurtful comment she could say to him, to get back at him for all the horrible stuff he's put her through. We hope this doesn't upset anyone!


	6. Taking Time to Hang Out

*Thursday*

"Ready to go pick up Sharon, Ran?" Carly asked, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

Ran yipped and started to scamper towards her owner, easily climbing up Carly's cotton pants and up to her shoulder. As Carly was locking up the house, her phone chirped, meaning that Sharon was looking for her.

"This new phone is pretty neat, Cam really knows me. It's nice, but not overly complicated you know?" Carly mentioned to Ran. It wasn't until close to dinner that Cam finally stopped by with the new phone, also mentioning that Sharon was still at his house hanging out. And now Sharon had just messaged her saying that she'd just come to school with Cam since she was already at his house.

"Guess we aren't stopping by Sharon's house today. Looks like we'll be getting to school a tad early this time- off we go."

Ran giggled, knowing that there really wasn't that much of a time difference, Sharon literally lived like 3 minutes away. She hopped onto the console as Carly fired up the truck, head bobbing to the music, looking forward to another day of learning. As they pulled into the school parking lot, they could already see Matt standing in the usual spot- obviously waiting for Sharon.

"Hey Matt, how nice of you to wait for me like this," Carly teased as soon as she opened the door.

He squinted, looking to the empty passenger seat, "Is Sharon not coming to school?"

"Naw, she's on her way, she'll be here, no worries lover boy," Carly commented, giving Matt a one armed hug.

"Holy- you're tall today, what?" Matt sputtered, taking a step back and looking at her outfit. "Is this school appropriate? I…"

"Of course it is. No bra strap showing, it's not… officially off my shoulders, my tummy doesn't show. No way are my pants too short, there is nothing obscene on it. And I don't have P.E. so I can wear heels if I want."

"Right, well… bit of a surprise, it's been awhile since you've worn something like this. Shall we wait for Sharon?"

Carly checked her watch, "Eh, we have some time, Cam lives a little further away than me so, we have time to go get our books. Might as well do something productive while we wait yea?"

Matt nodded in agreement and let Carly lead the way. He couldn't help but notice the looks they were getting, but he said nothing. Clearly it didn't bother Carly at all, and he couldn't do anything to stop it so, why get worked up over it right. They were silent as they got out books for their first few classes and then went back out front to wait.

"Did Sharon say anything to you? She didn't really text me much after she left. How is she doing?" Matt finally asked.

Carly raised a brow, "Wow, you waited a whole 7 minutes, I'm impressed. She's fine, I mean she was shaken up yea. But it didn't take her long to bounce back from it. You know Sharon is pretty tough, don't worry about her too much."

"Yea, I know… but I still, I worry. She's so small you know? And dainty, it just kinda makes me want to protect her. But I won't baby her or anything, she ruined Jackson's day all on her own last night, I know she can handle herself."

"Oh yea she did, I wonder if Jackson cried himself to sleep last night," Carly laughed.

The minutes ticked by and Matt was getting just a little antsy as they waited- "Are you sure she'd coming today? I mean it not like she doesn't deserve a day to just stay home you know?"

"Slow your roll Matt, she's coming, she texted me this morning. If she was going to stay home, she would have said something."

As she spoke, the bell rang, giving the students 5 minutes to get to class; Matt stared at her like she was in on some big lie. "They'll be here! Don't look at me like that."

Just then Carly picked up on the high whine of Cam's bike from a few blocks away- he was in a hurry! The last she'd heard his bike that wound out, they were racing, but at least that meant they'd be here before the last bell. She looked over at Matt to tell him 'I told you so' and found him scanning the sky.

"What are you doing? And people say I'm the weird one…"

"That noise, it sounds like… I don't know, some kind of plane or something."

"You idiot, that's Sharon."

Matt was about to open his mouth when Carly turned his head to the parking lot entrance and in zipped a red blur. Cam had taken the turn fast, Carly was sure he'd have a scrape on his trousers as he swung his knee out for counter balance. Then they were leaning the other way as he swung the bike into the front lane of the lot, brakes clenched as he slid into a spot. For a second Carly thought that Cam had over heated something, she was hearing this high whine, but then she realized it was coming from Matt. He stood there with his mouth hanging open, the squeak turning into a wheeze as he struggled to breathe- Carly slapped him on the back a few times to shock his system.

"Carly! How… How could you let her ride with him?! He's a menace!"

"Am not!" Cam called out, taking off his helmet. Carly couldn't help but shake her head- how did he never get helmet hair?

"Sharon! Look at you, is that a new outfit? I really love it!" Carly gushed, rushing forward to see her friend. There were many days that Carly believed Sharon's taste rivaled Lydia's, just that Lydia had more money to spend on clothes. "Oh and Cam, aren't you looking snazzy! I had no idea you possessed such nice clothes. You two even match, how sweet."

Matt looked from Cam to Sharon and back again, groaning when he realized that Lee was right. Seriously? Sharon and Cam just looked at each other and shrugged, that seemed to happen a lot, maybe they spent too much time together (doubtful).

"Bringing the old look back huh Carly, very nice," Cam shot back. He pulled off his leather riding jacket and the twins popped out, both looking a little jittery. That was probably the craziest ride for the two of them, but at least they weren't windswept!

"I can still totally kick your butt too! Pow!" Carly joked, swinging her leg up in a mock karate kick. Cam's arm shot out and he grabbed her around the ankle, stopping her pointed stiletto inches from his face.

"You could but try."

"Psh, did you think I was really going to scar up your pretty face?"

Cam just smiled and then twisted her foot, forcing Carly to turn around and face the school, leg bent up behind her now. Cam started walking, forcing Carly to hop forward on one foot, causing Sharon to slap him on his arm as she collected her boys.

"Don't be mean, you going to make her break an ankle in those boots," she scolded.

Cam just laughed and let go of her ankle, sweeping Sharon up under one arm and Carly under the other, "Let's get inside before the last bell rings!"

Matt was forced to collect himself and trail in after them… his heart was still doing its best to recover from the entrance Cam just made, and then he had no idea what to make of that little show of friendship he'd just seen. But he did agree with Carly, Sharon looked absolutely amazing today.

*First Period Shop Class*

Sabastian and Connor looked for Danny as soon as Sharon walked into class, they wanted the chance to talk with him, but they didn't see him… was he late? Sharon sighed and took her usual spot, thinking maybe he was skipping 1st period so he wouldn't have to talk with her and that made her feel awful. After last night, she really wouldn't be surprised, but it was still saddening to think about; Jackson was his best friend after all. So she was really surprised when he walked into class, trying to catch his breath, his two wolves holding onto the straps of his bag.

"My alarm didn't go off this morning, barely made it in time," he said, taking his spot right next to Sharon.

Instead of answering she just gaped at him, not even noticing as her wolves climbed down onto the table to talk with the other set of twins. Danny wasn't sure how to respond so he waved his hand in front of her face, wondering if she was spacing out.

"You're not mad at me?" Sharon asked, confusion written all over her face.

"Um, no? Why would I be?" Danny asked.

"Because of yesterday, what I said, and how Jackson reacted," she mumbled, surprised that he was acting confused.

"So? Jackson says a lot of mean things to everyone, you should hear the amount of flaming he does on McCall and Stilinski. Sure, what you said might have been a bit of a low blow, but honestly he's had it coming. I'm surprised you said it, I expected something like that out of your friend before you. But I'm not going to stop being your buddy because of one incident. I know there is a lot going on there."

Sharon slumped in relief, "Thanks Danny, I was so worried that you were going to hate me, the rest of the team too, actually."

"You shouldn't be worried, I'm Jackson's closest friend, honestly, the rest of the team doesn't care much about him one way or the other. I've known Jackson for years now, he stood up for me back in 3rd grade. A few other boys were picking on me for being different and he got mad. We've been friends ever since. But he doesn't show that side to a lot of people, so I'd be blind to not see how abrasive he is. So most of the team was actually really proud of you, saying something that the rest of them wished they had the courage to say."

"Really? They aren't mad?"

"Well, you weren't wrong when you said that most of the team doesn't respect him as a captain, so what should he expect? But he won't change."

"Can I ask why you're still friends with him?" Sharon pressed, needing to understand.

Danny paused, taking the time to pull out their project, "Mostly because he's been there for me, he's been nothing but nice to me. I don't just ignore his mean streaks though, I'm always telling him he needs to cool it, he just doesn't listen. Lydia tries too as well, but you can see how often he listens to her."

Sharon nodded her head, "I can't fault you for that, at least you aren't afraid to tell him when he'd being mean, even if he doesn't listen. I just didn't really understand, but if you've been friends for so long, it makes sense."

They smiled at each other as they got to work, hopefully by the end of the period, they'd finally have a fully complete chair to show Stiles.

*Second Period Economics*

Ran alerted Carly to Sharon's presence the moment she entered Coach's class; they both noticed her upswing in mood immediately.

"Hey, I take it Shop Class went well?" Carly asked. It wasn't hard to imagine that Sharon would have been a little worried about Danny's reaction. Carly knew it was going to be fine, Danny was a nice guy and he wouldn't start blowing her off because of some mean words.

Sharon nodded her head and gave her friend a quick rundown of what her and Danny talked about, finishing just as Coach started his lesson. They listened as he started explaining the causes for the current rates of inflation in the US. Ran decided to let Sabastian and Connor answer some of the questions, preferring not to build up too much spotlight, but the Weres were just so much more interesting in answering questions than some of the students.

When they reached the point in class where they started on bookwork, Carly bought up Matt, "Hey, so I know you technically declined Matt's invitation to a date night, but you like him don't you?"

"Yea, I like him, but I was too nervous to say yes in front of all those people you know? Now he probably feels weird about it."

Carly rolled her eyes, "He doesn't feel weird about it. So you should tell him you changed your mind, and that you'd like to go."

"If he's still available…"

"Trust me, he will be if it means you'd actually go on a date with him. So will you think about it?"

Sharon sighed, "Yea, I do want to go, why do you want me to say yes so bad?"

"Uh, because you're my friend and I know you like him, so why shouldn't you go?" Carly told her, giving her an incredulous stare. She was feeling kinda bad after what Cam had told her, but in the end she was Sharon's friend and was going to support her decisions; Cam even told her that was okay to do.

"That's a pretty good reason. I'll go ahead and find some time to tell him, but it definitely won't be at lunch! It just has to be when Cam isn't around as well."

The girls laughed and the wolves started dancing on the desks, Sharon was going to go on the date! Sharon couldn't stop smiling as she thought about going on an actual date with Matt; Sabastian and Connor kept smiling up at her too.

*Third Period Spanish*

When Spanish started, Sabastian jumped over to Matt's desk, really wanting to tell him what Mommy had decided but he knew that it wasn't he place to say anything. So instead he stood there and watched as Matt took notes; occasionally would reach up and pet him. After the class did their usual warm up questions, Mr. Schmidt had them work in pairs to complete a worksheet. Sharon panicked for a second, Cam hadn't come in yet, she _always_ partnered with him! But then she looked over and saw Matt, realizing that this was a good time to get to know him. So Sharon reached over and touched Matt's shoulder with her fingers, silently calling dibs on him before his lacrosse friend could.

Matt laughed, "Not looking forward to working with a stranger?"

"Why work with a stranger when I can work with you," she smiled at him.

The closed the distance between their desks, just to make working together a little easier and Sharon leaned over to watch as Matt wrote out the first answer. Cam came into class then, eyes narrowing when he saw how close Matt was sitting.

"Aw, a little late Mr. Thompson. We're doing a group worksheet, but I know you're more than capable, so feel free to work on your own. Please take your seat," Mr. Schmidt said, handing Cam the worksheet.

Cam cursed under his breath, seeing that his tardiness meant Sharon had picked Matt as her partner. Great… just great! Harris just had to hold him back to help clean up, and now Sharon was working with Daehler.

Matt tried to hide his grin but didn't do a very good job at it, he could tell when Cam scowled at him as he walked by. When Matt looked back over to Sharon, her face was next to his, and they made eye contact. Matt caught himself looking at her lips, wanting to lean in for a kiss. Sharon laughed lightly and smiled, looking down nervously. Matt was taken aback, she had never really acted this relaxed around him before, but he liked it. From behind them Cam gagged very loudly, kicking the back of Matt's chair. Although he wasn't sure if she was flirting with him or just being more open, so he leaned over closer to her and he read the next question. He used her paper to read off of, pointing out the vocabulary word he thought fit best in the blank. When she didn't pull away, he was starting to feel a little more confident, increasingly so with the hard kicks Cam was sending his way.

"You know, this says that Jorge took his dog for a walk, but I'm fairly certain, he's just trying to get Maria's attention," he pointed out, the picture showing a boy waving to a girl that was tending to her garden.

"Well, that's a good way to get a girl's attention, have an adorable dog, that's how Carly won me over," Sharon laughed.

"So are you saying I need to buy a dog? Wait, I have a better idea," he started, reaching down to pick up Sabastian. "Isn't he adorable, I found him just this morning on my desk, and being the nice guy that I am, I took him in."

Sharon laughed, bumping his arm with her shoulder, "Yea, he's adorable, isn't he Sabastian?"

Connor giggled, barely catching what she had done, and he watched as it dawned on Matt, a pink tinge rising on his cheeks. He smiled at her as he put Sabastian back down on the desk, the two of them slowly getting the worksheet filled in. Behind them, Cam was slamming his head onto his desk, Sharon was going to get a very stern talking to after this! She was doing this just to irritate him, he was sure of it. There was no other reason she'd seriously be flirting with him!

*Lunch*

Carly had gotten dismissed from her English class early so she made her way back to Mr. Schmidt's class, waiting for Sharon, Cam, and Matt to get out. As she saw them come walking out together she smiled at Ran, Matt had he arm around her as he whispered something in her ear, which caused Sharon to dissolve in a fit of giggles. The fact that the twins were also propped on Matt's shoulders, and Cam's disgusted face, gave a Carly a big hint as to how well they were getting along. She crept up behind them and then suddenly poked them both in the sides, cackling as Sharon yelped and Matt jumped.

"Going somewhere without me?" she asked, looking between the two of them.

Sharon blushed, realizing that her and Matt were rather close, but she knew Carly was just giving them a hard time. Cam on the other hand was being rather quiet, she could tell he was unhappy with Matt being this close.

"Well, we were talking about how obnoxious your truck was, the bane of every student here," Matt joked. "My ears are still ringing from when you pulled in this morning. Not to mention the heart attack I had when Cam here pulled in with his precious cargo- very dangerous sir."

"Oh ha, ha, ha. You love my truck, you're just jealous!" Carly said, playfully punching him in the arm. "So, where are we eating today?" she asked as they approached to cafeteria.

"I am an excellent driver thank you very much, and I'd be grateful if you were to take your hands off my 'precious cargo' before you find that your hands are no longer attached," Cam warned, pulling Matt's arm from around Sharon's shoulders.

"Anyways, lunch? Carly stepped in, trying to defuse everything before it even got heated.

Sharon looked over at Matt, letting him answer, feeling good with anything he might pick (only because they all knew he'd never say with Jackson). He debated for just a moment before suggesting they try sitting with Scott again? And if Jackson decided to join they'd just head outside.

"Yea, I'm fine with that, I didn't really get to meet them the other day, and I feel bad about that," Sharon readily agreed.

"Alright, inside it is," Carly called out, leading the way to Scott's usual table.

"Hey, back for round two?" Stiles asked as a way of greeting them.

"You know it! We don't back down from a fight," Carly said, dusting off her shoulders before sitting down.

Sharon sat down, right between Carly and Matt, "Hi again, sorry for ditching out the other day."

Scott spoke up then, "Don't worry about it, Jackson doesn't know how to be sensitive. Stiles told me all about the dispute I missed out on. Heard you got some good barbs in, wish I could have joined in."

Sharon gave him a half smile, still feeling a little unsure about the whole situation, but Matt gently nudged her, letting her know that he was being honest. Cam was about to rudely push in between Sharon and Matt when Carly grabbed his wrist and pulled over to her other side. She gave him a slight shake of her head, letting him know that this wasn't the right time.

"She might actually be making friends Cam, and you know Scott and Stiles aren't that bad," she whispered right next to his ear. Cam grumbled but acknowledged that she was right, so he sat and started making little balls from bits of his napkin to throw at Daehler instead!

The group made small talk as everyone started in on lunch, Sharon looking up just in time to notice Jackson and Danny sit a few tables away, with a bunch of the other players. She sighed in relief, knowing that he was actually leaving her alone right now, but it was probably mostly thanks to Danny, since he looked up and winked at her. She gave him a small wave in return, letting him know she appreciated it before turning back to Scott and Matt's conversation.

All the wolves were gathered at the center of the table Sabastian and Connor taking the time to ask the Weres about Deucalion. Allison's new Were Ennis was the first to reply, knowing him the best besides the twins.

"He's strong, and wants to surround himself with strong people and Weres, and he'll do whatever it takes to get someone on his side. But he doesn't tolerate weakness of any kind, so he's not the friendliest of Weres. Why do you want to know? He doesn't seem like the type you boys would hang out with."

"Well, we know Ethan and Aiden, and Ethan told us that he's a bully, we were just wondering how much of a bully he is," Connor explained, looking at the other minis to see if they had anything to add.

Ennis shrugged, "He was nice enough to me, but I'm not a pushover so he wouldn't have gotten away with bullying me."

Isaac decided to speak up, "He's scary, I went out of my way to avoid him when we were all at the store. Although he didn't go out of his way to say anything to me, he made it clear he didn't want me talking to him. So I hung out with Boyd and Erica!"

"Yea, I'd just stay away from him, if he comes up to you, just be polite and don't make him mad, he might do something rash," Derek added.

"So he'd be like Jackson," Sabastian stated, not afraid to say that since Jackson couldn't hear him.

The Weres moved on to happier conversations as lunch progressed, all of them sharing their snacks with each other, making Ran, Sabastian, and Connor feel very welcome. Carly noticed that all of them seemed to be getting along, although Sabastian and Connor didn't wander too far from Ran, wanting to be close to someone familiar. She also noticed that Sharon and Matt kept touching each other in subtle ways, a casual brush of their arms, Matt pushing her hair back behind her ears. They really felt a lot more comfortable with each other, and Carly was sure it had something to do with the fact that Matt had stepped between her and Jackson, showing no fear. That really made an impression, not really caring if you got hit if it meant protecting someone else. Cam of course noticed as well and would periodically hook shot his napkin bullets at Matt's head, almost always hitting his mark. Carly would slap his arm every time, but she also couldn't help but giggle every time Matt would run his hand through his hair, unaware that it was Cam assaulting him.

*Fourth Period Biology*

Sharon slowly walked into her Biology class, this was her first period with Jackson and she was more than a little nervous. She sped past his desk, heading down the next row, hating that their seating arrangement had them sitting right next to each other. When she sat down, she scooted her minis to the far side of the desk, making sure they were well out of his reach, just in case he decided to try anything, but so far he hadn't even spared her a glance. Just before class started, Danny (who was sitting right in front of her) slid her a note.

'Hey, I think Lydia and I managed to get Jackson to cool off, he hasn't mentioned you all day.'

Sharon looked over at Jackson, out of the corner of her eyes, and sure enough he was looking forward. He had a rather grumpy look on his face, but it wasn't directed at her so she was glad; even his Were was ignoring her. So she wrote a quick thank you and tossed it over Danny's shoulder as soon as the teacher's back was turned.

Sabastian and Connor had read over the note as well, both thankful for Danny's presence; they gave each other an air-five (no distracting noise) as a celebration. Too bad Danny wasn't in the rest of their classes, that would solve a lot of their problems, but one was better than none.

The first half of class went smoothly, and then Mr. Hill passed back their tests and a collective groan went up around the class. Sharon had studied hard, and she felt pretty good about the test, but she was still nervous about seeing her score, and from the sound of it, so was the rest of the class. The twins crossed their fingers, hoping for the best, eyes on the teacher as he walked among the students. When he reached Sharon, he offered her the smallest of smiles which Sharon took as a good sign, but she still held her breath, looking at the back of the test.

Danny turned around, "How did you do?"

Then he laughed when he noticed she still hadn't looked, "It can't be that bad right?"

"Come on Mommy, we want to see!" Sabastian added, jumping up and down, confident.

With a heavy sigh, she turned over the paper and looked in the upper corner, making a small squeak as she saw the '91 Very Good!' up there.

"All right! Almost caught me," Danny teased, flashing his 100% but he held up his hand for a high five, knowing that she'd be stressed out about it.

Sharon beamed at him as she clapped her hand against his, and then let the wolves high-five each other, the whole group feeling pretty happy. She couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the period, she couldn't wait to tell Carly!

*Sixth Period Trigonometry*

As Carly and Ran entered their last class, they paused, noticing that Lydia had abandoned her usually spot to occupy the seat next to her desk. Carly continued to her desk, brow raised at the pretty Sophomore, knowing there was something up.

"Hi Carly," Lydia greeted, watching as the older student sat down, with an obvious lack of grace in her opinion.

Carly just waved, choosing not to say anything until she knew what this was about. Ran politely waved as well, insanely curious about this girl and her Were. They watched as Lydia sighed, clearly realizing that they weren't going to be very responsive.

"I wanted to talk to you about Jackson," Lydia said, jumping right to the point since they weren't exchanging pleasantries.

Ran and Carly looked surprised, and Peter snorted, like he did every time Jackson was mentioned. Lydia gave them the slightest of swats, although she couldn't hide the slight smile that pulled at her lips.

"I'm sure you're aware this has something to do with what happened yesterday, and Peter here encouraged to just come directly to you to ask, what exactly is the issue between the two of you?"

Ran giggled as Peter gave an elaborate bow, readily taking credit for the idea; Carly just sighed and rolled her eyes, honestly not knowing where to start. They paused for a moment as Mr. Lasher started class, knowing that after he took roll, they'd be able to talk quietly (being the top two students in class definitely had perks).

"My problem with your boyfriend is that he's a complete dick! He better count his blessings he wasn't around my Freshman year or he might not be playing lacrosse. He's got such a complex going on, I have no idea how he gets through the day without his head exploding. I also have no idea how you put up with him for the better part of the day. When he first came here, he immediately decided that he had to be top dog, and he bullied his way into the popular circle. He's the reason that every high school movie has the mean popular captain of whatever sport! He's the embodiment of that trope, that gives all the Freshman nightmares, afraid to come to school because the bully will get them! Is that really so hard to understand?"

Carly took a deep breath, trying to calm herself so that way she didn't start yelling in class; Ran on the other hand had shifted to a more aggressive posture, picking up on Carly's anger. Peter realized how strongly they both felt about him and wanted to calm the situation, but he wasn't sure how.

"Okay, so you don't like Jackson, so you stay away from him, like I do. But what happened the other day?" he finally asked.

Ran started Signing, eager to answer Peter's question, looking him straight in the eye so he'd know how strongly she felt about him.

"Did you know that Jackson told Sharon to stay away from practice? Did you know that he has physically harmed her? You couldn't see it yesterday, but he looked ready to murder Sharon, he has no control. He thinks he has every right to tell people how to live their lives and if they don't listen to him, he can bully them into submission!"

After Carly finished translating, she plopped down onto the desk, huffing out in anger and crossing her arms. Lydia and Peter both sat there, silent, as they let that information sink in; Peter looked up at Lydia, worried.

"I knew he was an ass, but if he's like that to people he doesn't like, it's only a matter of time until he gets mad at you too Lydia. I'm really not comfortable with him, and I don't like his new Were either! He thinks he can get me to join his Pack and I refuse!" Peter whispered, looking pointedly at her.

Lydia sighed, "I know, but… we've been dating for awhile now…"

"So? That doesn't mean you can't end it whenever you want. Don't let him make you feel like you owe him anything! If your Were has a bad feeling about it, you should listen, their instincts are a lot better than ours," Carly told her, realizing that Lydia wasn't as two-dimensional as she had first appeared.

The two stopped talking after that, both thinking about Jackson and the way he treated people while attempting to take notes. Peter took the time to jump over to Carly's desk, wanting to talk to Ran some more.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you mad…"

Ran sighed, "It's okay."

Peter couldn't help but wag his tail, she had actually spoken to him! That was amazing, and he hoped he'd get to hear her voice again.

*After School*

By the time the bell rang, Peter had gotten a few more words out of Ran and he was sad to have to leave. But his plan had worked so far, Lydia did end up sitting by Carly so they could discuss Jackson. It had been really easy to see (Even way before the almost fight) that she greatly disliked the team captain, and he felt like she'd be a good outside opinion. For some reason Lydia still didn't take him seriously when it came to her boyfriend, but hopefully that would change after this. He waved goodbye to Ran as Lydia placed him in her purse, sighing as they all went to practice.

When Carly walked out of the classroom, she was almost tackled by the flying energy ball that was Sharon.

"You won't believe it, I've been _dying_ to tell you the good news!"

"Jackson is moving?" Carly guessed, face lighting up.

"No, I wish, but just as awesome, look at my Biology test!" Sharon exclaimed, holding out the test for her friend to see.

When Carly finally spotted the score, she screamed, "Awesome! I knew you could do it! A 91? That's great news, I'm so proud of you."

"Told you that we'd help you study for it," Cam added on. "No way we'd let you fail."

Sharon practically danced all the way to their lockers, sharing the rest of the good news, "And, Jackson left me alone all day! Mostly thanks to Danny and Lydia I'm sure, but he didn't even look at me."

"That's good, now I don't have to beat him with his own lacrosse stick, I'm glad his friend was able to talk some sense into him," Carly said, dumping all of her unneeded books into the locker before closing it. "Are we heading to practice?"

"Sadly," Cam groaned, already knowing that Sharon had made up her mind.

"Yes!" the twins cried, "We missed practice yesterday, but we don't want to miss out two days in a row!"

"Practice!" Ran sang out, clapping her hands.

Carly gave Sharon a congratulatory hug and then they walked out to the field, Carly thinking of maybe working on some of the homework while they watched the boys chuck around a ball. It took no time at all for Matt to head over and pick up the twins, promising, as always, to be careful with them. Sharon waved to them and Cam gave a rather nasty glare to the jock as he walked off with the twins. Ran waved them off before taking a silent count of all the Weres left on the benches; there was Cora, jumping around with Erica of course, then Boyd laughing at them, enjoying their games. Kali and Ennis were sitting quietly with Allison, going over homework. And then there was Peter, sitting all alone as Lydia casually fixed her makeup. But Ran didn't want to look like she was stalking them so she jumped down to read Carly's trig book, wanting to get a head start on the homework.

*Out on the Field*

"Here we go!" Connor said, blood pumping at the excitement.

Coach was having them scrim today, in preparation for the upcoming game, so practice should have plenty of excitement. Just before they got into formation, the twins waved to Isaac over in Scott's helmet. Isaac still looked pretty nervous about the whole thing, but Boyd had promised him it was tons of fun.

For the first part of the game, Matt was defending, Sabastian and Connor helping out as best they could to communicate who had the ball, since they could keep better track of it. After he managed to snag a ball during a botched pass, he threw the ball to Danny to clear, barely catching the cheer from Ethan and Aiden in his helmet.

"Dammit Stilinski, the goal was wide open, why didn't you score?" Connor heard Jackson yell.

Stiles didn't respond to him, but Derek decided to call out, "Maybe because you _always_ tell _everyone_ to pass to you!"

Despite the seriousness of the practice, Matt saw Scott double over with laughter, having heard Derek's comment. Luckily Jackson did not, and Deucalion had decided to ignore it, or Stiles would surely be in trouble. As they continued to practice, the minis continued to help him with his reflexes, commenting on when a player was coming up behind him, or in his blind spot, allowing him to effectively dodge and go to goal.

Matt's team cheered as he scored another point, Scott coming to pat him on the back, even Stiles gave him a thumbs up from his spot on the field. Meanwhile Jackson was busy talking to the defenders about not doing their jobs. All in all, practice went well for him and Coach gave him a quick pep talk.

"Good going Daehler, you make sure to play like that on Saturday alright? Between you and Jackson, and Danny as goalie, we'll be sure to win."

"Thanks Coach, I always do my best."

*After Showers*

"Good job Matt," Carly and Sharon called out as he delivered the clean Weres back to their Mom.

"Thanks, the boys helped out a lot, I hope I can do fine without them on game day. They really help with keeping track of my blind spots, it will be weird not having them there all of a sudden," Matt commented.

"I'm sure it will be fine, you've been one of the top players before they started practicing with you so you can't suck too bad," Sharon laughed, smiling at him.

"Or maybe you'll suck so bad without them you'll get kicked out of school," Cam proposed gleefully.

"Hey Matt, we've actually got a small amount of homework we we're going to chill at Sharon's house, want to come?" Carly asked as they slowly trekked back to the parking lot.

"What! No one informed me of this!" Cam shouted.

"Uh, sure, that sounds like fun," Matt said, glad that they thought to include him and happy for another chance to annoy Cam.

"Cam you have to be nice, I'm making friends now, please be nice," Sharon beseeched, turning to look up into his eyes. Cam grumbled, knowing she was doing this on purpose… he was never able to deny her. Sharon squeaked with delight when he finally nodded his head as a promise to not be completely nasty.

Matt celebrated in his head as he promised to follow them when they split up, heading to separate cars, starting to feel slightly nervous as he realized this meant he'd be meeting Sharon's parents. He paused, looking down at his clothes and groaned, he was wearing a rather tore up shirt (it was his after practice shirt, sue him) and jeans; he had kinda hoped to be a little more presentable for the important first meeting. But he couldn't back out now, Sharon might get the wrong idea and assume he wasn't that interested. He'd just have to try extra hard to charm them he supposed. As he heard Carly's truck firing up, he got a message from Sharon, asking if he would stay for dinner or not, it was a pizza kind of night. In lieu of responding, he turned towards the truck and gave a thumbs-up, making sure Sharon returned it so he knew she saw it. Definitely too late to back out now he decided, getting into his car and starting it up; he quickly backed out and approached the truck, signaling that he was ready to follow. As Carly started to drive away, Cam's bike shot out of nowhere and cut him off, clearly Cam's way of saying 'back off' and Matt scowled. This was starting out so great.

*Sharon's House*

"God Matt, you drive like a grandma! I kept having to slow down so I didn't leave you behind," Carly complained as soon as Matt got out of the car.

"Sorry I'm not a speed demon like you, your highness," Matt threw back. "And Cam was fiddling around on his bike, I was scared he was going to crash and end up under my tires."

"I would never crash, that's just sad that you'd think me so bad of a driver," Cam snubbed. "It was just a few wheelies while we waiting for your slow ass to catch up."

"And a few random brake checks!" Matt muttered. "One of these days you're gonna get hurt and Sharon better not be on the back of your bike."

Cam spun around and faced Matt, "Sharon's life is never in danger when she's with me, on my bike or not."

"My baby doesn't know the meaning of slow Matt, just look at my license plate cover. Keep up next time," Carly chuckled, pointing to it to interrupt their bickering. She knew Cam was an excellent driver, she'd often had him driving around her truck messing around and they both trusted each other enough to know they were safe. Matt was going to have a heart attack before he was even out of school if he kept this up!

Matt doubled over laughing when he saw it, surprised that he'd never noticed it before" I'm not speeding, I'm qualifying. It did the trick to ease the tension that had been building just moments ago.

"Qualifying? For what?" Sharon asked, never having looked at it either.

"Drag races," Cam explained as the group moved to the front door, he'd been the one to buy that for her after all.

Matt hesitated a second, mentally preparing himself for the meeting, but neither of the girls noticed, easily passing over the threshold. Not wanting to be obvious, he pulled himself together and followed them in, pulling the door closed behind him before following the girls further into the house.

"So what time am I ordering pizza? I'm feeling kind of hungry, do we want to go over homework and then eat, or eat and halfass study?" Carly asked, setting her bag down.

"And by that you mean when am _I_ ordering the pizza," Cam said, smiling.

"Well duh, the girl that takes to-go orders thinks you're cute and always gives you a discount, you always order the pizza," Carly shot back, setting the Weres down on the table.

Ran and the twins jumped out of her hands, running over to the PS3 controllers, "Games!" they all called out.

"Okay then, no studying at all," Sharon laughed, watching as the three wolves fought over the remotes.

"I'm feeling pretty hungry after practice today, do half-assed studying while we eat, then games?" Matt offered.

"Sounds good," Carly said, walking way to get the phone, pulling Cam with her.

While they were alone, Matt decided to ask Sharon about her parents, "Um, aren't your parents wondering who you brought home?"

Sharon looked up at him confused, before remembering that Matt hadn't known they'd be out of town. "Oh, they aren't home! I didn't think about that, you probably wanted to meet them. Sorry! They won't be home until Monday."

Matt gaped at her as she nonchalantly turned on the gaming system for the minis to play, "Are you saying you'll be here alone all weekend?"

"Yea, well, maybe, I'll probably be with Carly a lot, either here or at her house; Cam keeps me company too. Why?"

"I don't know, it just seems a little weird that your parents don't mind you being alone for that long," Matt shrugged as the other two reappeared.

"Well, they know she's responsible, and that she has me and my family if she needs anything, not that big of a deal," Carly said, not understanding.

"Yea, mine too, we're all like one big family," Cam added on, clearly wanting to make Matt feel left out

"Would your parents leave you alone all weekend?"

Carly laughed, "Yea, they have already, a few times. No biggie. Yours wouldn't?"

"No, they'd probably hire my old lady neighbor to be my babysitter so that way they don't worry about me, I am a teenager after all," Matt said incredulously.

"That's because you're still a baby," Cam laughed.

"Your parents sound lame," Carly shrugged, sitting down on the couch.

"And it's not like they just went on a vacation without me," Sharon started to explain. "Dad had this writer's convention to go to and Mom decided to take some time off work to go with him. Sort of like a mini-vacation for her. It's fine."

Matt shook his head, still surprised that this was normal to them, but decided to just roll with it, at least this meant he had more time to prepare. The group pulled out some of their work, but spent more time laughing at the Weres as they tried to play Just Dance with the huge controllers. Before long the pizza came and they quickly gave up any semblance of working, not wanting to get their papers all greasy. When they finished, the Weres were completely tuckered out, not offering any resistance to the humans taking over the system.

"Alright, I've got Just Dance, obviously, um, Resistance: Fall of Man, Ridge Racer 7, and Guitar Hero. What's up first?" Sharon asked, holding out the games.

"Let's go with Resistance, I'm all for shooting stuff," Matt decided, grabbing one of the controllers as she popped the disk in.

"After I kick your ass in this, I'm totally going to own your ass in Ridge Racer," Cam claimed, already holding the first controller.

The rest of the evening was full of laughter and snotty comments as the four competed to be the crowned winner in all the games. Matt even got talked into playing Just Dance (he didn't fail too horribly) and Carly kicked everyone's butt in Ridge Racer (for which Matt reiterated she was a Speed Demon). She spent the rest of the night rubbing it Cam's face that he'd come in second to her, although Cam's point stood that he at least owned Matt. All in all they had a lot of fun, Matt sadly announcing that he had to be heading home, before he got an angry phone call from his Mom (Cam making another snide remark about him being a baby). Carly decided to clean up all the plates, giving Sharon a rather pointed look before she left the room, once again pulling Cam with her.

Sharon blushed but was happy that Carly reminded her to bring it up. She walked Matt to the door, following him outside. "Hey um, are you still free on Friday?"

"Yea, as long as Coach doesn't kill us at practice, why?"

Sharon smiled up at him, "Well, 'cause I wanted to change my previous 'no' to a 'yes, I'd love to go on a date with you', if you still wanted to that is."

Matt's jaw dropped open, just slightly, as he looked at her, no words coming to mind. Sharon waited, staring up at him, praying that his silence was due to surprise and not because he had bad news. After quite a few seconds of silence, she popped the door back open, yelling out to Carly.

"I think I broke him!"

"Good, he better stay broken! Wait, how did you break him, what did you do?" Cam called. Sharon could hear him struggling to get to her, but Carly must have been holding him back.

Carly's laugher carried out to them, finally snapping Matt out of his thoughts, "Yea, that would be awesome! Great! Are you sure? You really want to go on a date tomorrow?"

"Yea, I mean, the only reason I shook my head no was more out of shyness and embarrassment than not wanting to go. But Carly kindly reminded me that I should give you an actual answer instead of leaving it where it was."

Matt was smiling brightly at her, ecstatic that she wanted to go with him, despite all the unfortunate events that had happened between them. "This is so great, um, I can give you some more details at school? I'd stay and talk but you know, parents."

"That's fine, go on home before you get in trouble and then can't go!" Sharon chuckled as she shooed him away.

Matt pulled her into a tight hug before saying goodnight, almost forgetting Carly in his hurry; he opened the door and called out a goodnight to her as well. Then he hurried to his car, giving Sharon one last smile before driving away.


End file.
